A New Front in Ukraine: How Space Became a Decisive Element in the War

In a war that relies heavily on drones and sensors, access to space has become essential, prompting Kyiv to develop its own capabilities.

Although Russia concealed details of the Ukrainian attack on Samara last August 15, videos circulating on social media clearly revealed the target: the Progress Rocket and Space Center, the manufacturer of Russian Soyuz-2 missiles.

Amid a series of Ukrainian strikes targeting Russian oil refineries and industrial facilities, the Samara attack emerged as evidence of the war's expanding scope, now reaching into space, according to the British newspaper The Guardian.

The paper stated that in a conflict reshaping the concept of war through intensive reliance on drones and field sensors, access to space and the satellites powering these systems, along with the ability to disrupt enemy operations there, has become critically important.

The Samara attack is a prominent example; it targeted missiles intended for launching Russia's new Rasvet satellite system, which Moscow is deploying rapidly as an alternative to billionaire Elon Musk's Starlink network.

This year, Ukraine attacked other sites belonging to the Russian space agency Roscosmos, including the massive Korolev complex north of Moscow and a radio telescope of Ukrainian manufacture that Russia had acquired in Crimea.

The space challenges facing Ukraine are not limited to Russia's rapid deployment of its Rasvet network; Moscow has also used Oreshnik ballistic missiles on at least three occasions.

This system relies on suborbital flight before releasing multiple independently targetable reentry vehicles, originally designed for nuclear weapons.

All this has pushed Kyiv to intensify efforts to diversify its access to space systems, moving away from total dependence on the United States and the Starlink system, which faced controversial restrictions in recent weeks, while also developing countermeasures against Oreshnik missiles.

In its quest to launch its own satellites, Ukraine has conducted at least three tests to intercept targets in near space, joining the list of nations seeking a foothold in space.

Last month, this effort bore fruit when Ukraine and Danish company GomSpace announced the successful launch of the experimental satellite Obriya Nano, the first in a future independent Ukrainian communications network expected to comprise around 245 satellites.

Experts view the extension of the Ukraine war into space as the latest evidence of the accelerating militarization of this domain, while governing treaties remain imprecise, outdated, and difficult to enforce.

Last September, US Air Force Secretary Troy Meink acknowledged for the first time that Washington had deployed "space control weapons" in orbit, amid reports of Russia directing its satellites to approach US and allied space assets.

A few weeks later, a Russian satellite named Cosmos 2612 was observed performing hostile maneuvers toward a commercial radar satellite operated by Finnish group ICEYE, which provides the Ukrainian military with 3D terrain imagery.

Elena Groussfeld, a space and security expert at the Swedish Defence University, said, "Space war has long been discussed as a future scenario, but we are already living in that future."

Groussfeld believes space has become essential for Russia's military success; Moscow treats offensive operations in this domain as a precursor to broader conflict, in a new reality where war is inseparable from intelligence and targeting operations reliant on satellites. She added, "This began before the outbreak of the war in Ukraine."

For his part, General David Thompson, former Vice Commander of the US Space Force, confirmed that the United States faces daily attacks from Russia and China targeting its satellites.

He said, "These attacks do not necessarily involve physical destruction, but given the current war and everyone's reliance on space for intelligence and communications, this issue is central to concerns."

Although Russia's motives for targeting the ICEYE satellite remain unclear, one possibility is forcing the satellite to consume fuel to change its orbit, thereby shortening its operational lifespan.

Russia has also resorted to signal jamming, using lasers to disable satellites, and placing spy satellites near other nations' space assets.

Experts note that what complicates the situation in space further is that international treaties regarding space governance and weapon deployment have failed to keep pace with reality.

Victoria Samson, Director of the Space Security and Stability Program at Secure World Foundation, pointed to a rapid increase in the number of nations active in space, coinciding with the expansion of commercial activities.

While many countries chose to rely on SpaceX to launch their satellites, Musk's recent actions toward Ukraine—specifically reducing data transmission speeds via the Starlink network—prompted these nations to quickly reconsider their dependence on commercial projects that may lack reliability or be subject to ideological agendas.

She continued, "There is also the issue of using space in actual military conflict. We have already seen Russia jamming the Global Positioning System (GPS), disrupting air traffic over the Baltic states."

Samson believes one consequence of unreliability, whether from Musk or the US administration, has been driving other nations to seek alternatives, stating, "Everyone is now trying to acquire their own versions of Starlink."

For Ukraine, Fedir Venislavskyi, head of the Subcommittee on National Security under the Defense Committee of the Ukrainian Parliament, explained that this means a "sovereign" Ukrainian presence in space, which has already been achieved through the Obriya Nano satellite.

He added, "Since the start of the war, the space domain has become vital for Ukrainian forces, as confirmed by recent events, whether instigated by the US administration or SpaceX, where we witnessed communication outages endangering our military command and control systems."

He continued, "We now need to elevate this to another level, especially since the enemy threatens Ukrainian territory from international space using Oreshnik missiles."

Given that Russian launch platforms are beyond the range of Ukrainian missiles, Kyiv conducted three tests of exo-atmospheric interception systems, aiming to counter launches in near space, including weapons loaded onto aircraft flying at extremely high altitudes.