President-elect Donald Trump spoke on Wednesday (Thursday AEDT) with Ukraine’s President, Volodymyr Zelensky, and during the call handed the phone to Elon Musk, the increasingly influential billionaire who has played a key role providing communications capability to Ukraine in its war with Russia, a person familiar with the discussion said.

It is not clear what the three men discussed or whether they touched on any change in US policy towards Ukraine following Trump’s election. Mr Musk was with Trump at Mar-a-Lago, his private club and residence in Florida, and the tone of the call was described as positive, according to the person familiar with the discussion.