Adam Satariano, Scott Reinhard, Cade Metz, Sheera Frenkel, Malika Khurana
An animation showing circles that represent Starlink satellites moving over a map of Ukraine, a sped-up view of five minutes of satellite movement. The satellites enter and leave in different directions, and their flight paths include Ukraine’s occupied territory.
On March 17, Gen. Mark A. Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Gen. Valeriy Zaluzhnyi, the leader of Ukraine’s Armed Forces, dialed into a call to discuss Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Over the secure line, the two military leaders conferred on air defense systems, real-time battlefield assessments and shared intelligence on Russia’s military losses.
They also talked about Elon Musk.
General Zaluzhnyi raised the topic of Starlink, the satellite internet technology made by Mr. Musk’s rocket company, SpaceX, three people with knowledge of the conversation said. Ukraine’s battlef