By Galina Korol | 2024-07-22

Ukraine's crowdfunded purchase of satellite access to stalk and destroy invading Russian forces is paying off.

At the end of June, Ukrainian military intelligence (HUR) posted an update about the results of using "the people's satellite" -- an ICEYE satellite that HUR specialists have been using for almost two years to identify enemy targets and protect Ukraine.

ICEYE is a Finnish satellite manufacturer and the global leader in Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) satellite operations for observing Earth.

"The results are just over the moon!" exclaims the June 26 HUR statement.

According to HUR, the "people's satellite" and access to the ICEYE satellite constellation have made it possible to take 4,173 images of enemy targets, including 370 airfields; 238 air defense and signal intelligence positions; 153 oil or fuel depots; 147 facilities used to store missiles, aerial weaponry, and ammunition; and 17 naval bases.

"Approximately 38% of the entire data set obtained through [the] ICEYE satellite was used to directly prepare strikes on the enemy -- this is billions of dollars in losses for Russia, and the price of its aggression will continue to increase," the statement said.

Battlefield advantage

ICEYE and the Ministry of Defense on July 8 agreed to further strengthen their cooperation in the interest of Ukraine's national security and defense.

"ICEYE has been an important partner for Ukraine in providing satellite data responsibly," said Oleksandra Ustinova, chair of Ukraine's Parliamentary Commission on Arms, according to an ICEYE statement. "We are grateful that they are taking the technological lead within the industry to help protect Ukraine from Russian aggression."

Through the use of ICEYE's modern technologies, Ukraine will have "an advantage on the battlefield and far beyond enemy lines," she said in the statement.

"ICEYE has been working closely with the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine from Day 1 to support and help Ukraine in building space defense capabilities," said company CEO and co-founder Rafal Modrzewski, according to the statement.

"We take pride in our efforts to provide objective, actionable data and technological support to Ukraine," he said. "The use of new, ground-breaking technology will continue to add significant value to the Government of Ukraine."

Invaluable technology

"Thanks to the people's satellite, our military managed to destroy thousands of military targets, including the Rostov-on-Don submarine and the Minsk large landing ship to name a few," said Serhiy Prytula, a former Ukrainian TV host, whose foundation helped raise money for the satellite.

"It paid itself off dozens of times," he said, as quoted by POLITICO July 1.

Kyiv was able to enter the open-ended satellite contract with ICEYE and purchase full access to the satellite because Ukrainian citizens had raised money to buy Turkish-made Bayraktar drones.

Baykar, the manufacturer, instead supplied three drones for free to Ukraine.

That generosity allowed Ukrainians to decide what to with the more than 600 million UAH ($14.5 million today) they had raised to buy Bayraktars.

"In August 2022, they decided to buy one satellite as well as access to the database of Finish [sic] satellite company ICEYE," POLITICO reported.

"The satellite is working -- that's for sure," said Pavlo Lakiychuk, a military analyst and program manager at the Strategy XXI Center for Global Studies.

"As someone principally educated as a signal intelligence officer, I will say that this is a very important part of identifying enemy targets," he said. "Satellite images supply information for work performed by many dozens of specialists who use that information to form specific directives and certain conclusions."

"And the fact that we have such a satellite is really cool, whatever anyone says," he added.

How the satellite works

Having such a spacecraft at its disposal has been vital for Ukraine, said Andrey Kolesnik, an independent analyst of space activities and former adviser to the chairman of the State Space Agency of Ukraine.

"Our partners provide us with a lot of satellite imagery from almost 300 commercial satellites, but these images pertain to Ukrainian territory, whereas this satellite, because its use was purchased, allows Ukraine to order images from anywhere in Russia or its partners in this axis of evil," he told Kontur.

The ICEYE satellite dedicated to Ukraine relies on radar technology, Kolesnik explained.

"It works like this: The satellite sends radiation to the earth. Then what is on the surface of the earth reflects the radiation, and the antennas on the satellite, which are quite large, pick up this fingerprint," he said.

"This fingerprint information is the primary data, which is then processed to determine what was it that was happening at that moment on this piece of land that was reflected and then picked up by these satellite antennas," said Kolesnik.

After highly skilled personnel and special software decipher the data, the objects on the earth's surface that reflected the signal are identified.

"For example, a tank is, let's say, up to six meters long and three meters wide. In a satellite image, such a tank may appear as a rectangle," Kolesnik said. "But then, thanks to the nuances of the fingerprint, which will reveal that it is a metal structure, we can conclude whether it is a tank or a truck."

Thus, radar can be used to recognize many things that most commercial satellites cannot.

"Radar satellites and imagery are very valuable and more expensive than optical ones, because such images can be recorded any time of the day and in any weather -- cloudy, rainy, sunny or snowy," he said.

"We can also see airplanes on airfields, as well as tanks or anti-aircraft systems or artillery pieces hidden in the forest. That's why this is a very good type of space reconnaissance," he said.

'Huge leap'

The intelligence gathering that the Ukrainian army needs on the battlefield has advanced greatly since the beginning of the war, said Lakiychuk.

"Another huge leap we have made in a little more than two years is means of electronic reconnaissance and electronic warfare," he said. "And the results are truly incredible."

Lakiychuk noted the growth of Ukraine's missile industry among these successes.

For example, Ukraine developed a new variant of the R-360 Neptune anti-ship cruise missile in 2023 to be able to strike ground targets.

It can now reach Krasnodar territory in southern Russia without trouble, Lakiychuk said.

"This is not the limit. It's just the beginning," he said. "There are a lot of missiles and anti-tank weapons being developed."