Atlantic: Trump refused to give Ukraine 300 “Patriot” missiles, but agreed to talk to Musk about using Starlink to attack Russia

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky asked the US President Donald Trump to influence billionaire Elon Muskʼs decision to allow the use of Starlink to control drones during attacks on Russia.

The Atlantic writes about this, citing sources.

The new proposal would allow the United States not to transfer missiles to Ukraine for Patriot air defense systems, the publication writes. As the media notes, Zelensky previously asked the United States for 300 missiles, but Trump refused.

Until now, Musk has allowed Ukrainians to use Starlink only on their own territory, including Crimea and other regions occupied by Russia.

Ukraine wants to use Starlink to direct drone attacks on small and mobile ballistic missile launchers used by Russia to attack Ukraine. During his visit to the United States this week, Zelensky asked to meet with Musk to discuss the plan, but the billionaire declined the invitation.

Trump said during his meeting with Zelensky that he would consider this request and talk to Musk, but made no promises.

Meanwhile, sources close to former Defense Minister Mikhail Fedorov told reporters that a few weeks before his dismissal, the minister was in talks with Musk and other contacts in the United States to get permission to use Starlink for drone strikes on Russia. According to the sources, Musk assured Fedorov that it would be possible “if Trump says to do it”. The talks broke down, he added, after a government reshuffle.

During talks with Trump, Zelensky suggested that if Musk did not allow Starlink to be used to strike Russia, the Pentagon could give Ukraine access to the Starshield network for the same purpose, two officials said. However, one of them added that Starshield would not work so well for Ukraine.

“It’s more expensive, more complex, and harder to integrate into our systems. We figured out how to launch drones on Starlink a long time ago. We’ll have no problem sending them across the border. But Starshield is a slightly different system. We’ll need to figure out how to integrate it,” the official said.

Thus, Starlink remains the cheapest and most reliable guidance system available for Ukrainian long-range drones.

For more news and in-depth stories from Ukraine, please follow us on X.