Russia plans to launch nearly 20 additional satellites this year and hundreds more next year as it accelerates the deployment of its Starlink alternative, Rassvet, Ukraine’s military intelligence agency said Friday.
The new assessment comes as Ukraine continues to face restrictions on its Starlink services, which it says are disrupting its drone operations.
Russia has already launched 30 satellites this year for Rassvet, a low-Earth-orbit satellite internet constellation that it has billed as comparable to SpaceX’s Starlink, which is widely used by Ukrainian forces.
Rassvet’s deployment has faced setbacks, including difficulties with launch and dependencies on foreign components, Ukraine’s GUR military intelligence agency said in a statement.
Two of the 30 Russian satellites launched this year have already “deorbited,” and while 26 have reached a stable position at an altitude of roughly 320 miles, none have reached the planned 500-mile altitude — though they are maneuvering toward it, the GUR said.
Russia plans to expand the constellation to up to 48 satellites by the end of the year and launch another 240 next year to cover 94% of Russian territory with speeds of up to 150 Mbps, the GUR said. Moscow plans to bring the constellation up to 408 satellites by 2031 and 924 by 2035.
The Rassvet satellites, each weighing little more than 600 pounds, rely on laser communication instead of ground stations to transfer data.
Russia uses the Soyuz-2.1b three-stage rocket to launch its satellites into orbit. Ukraine has attacked production facilities that manufacture this family of rockets in an attempt to disrupt Moscow’s space industry.
Rassvet’s main control center is in Moscow, but the GUR said Russia plans to build a network of ground stations across the country.
Neither Russia’s defense ministry nor its US embassy responded to a request for comment on the GUR’s assessment.
Rassvet is considered to be Russia’s alternative to Starlink, SpaceX’s commercial satellite internet service that has been crucial for Ukrainian battlefield operations. Kyiv’s forces also use Starshield, the military-grade variant.
Russia was able to use Starlink in Ukraine until earlier this year, when Kyiv pressed SpaceX to disable its terminals. Starlink became a particularly significant asset for Ukraine in the months that followed, supporting a mix of combat operations by providing reliable communications for its drones.
Last month, however, Ukraine was hit with sudden restrictions on its Starshield services. Its forces endured speed limits for more than a week that severely affected its front-line operations.
The shocking disruption came amid high tensions between Kyiv and Washington over Ukrainian strikes against Russian energy infrastructure. Starlink services are available in Ukraine and Russian-occupied territory, but not inside Russia.
Ukraine appears to be in the middle of another Starlink outage. On Thursday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Kyiv had once again detected speed limits of 100 miles per hour.
On Friday, Ukrainian defense ministry sources told Business Insider that these speed limits were being recorded across all Russian-occupied territory, but not on Ukrainian-controlled land. Zelenskyy said the disruption is affecting Kyiv’s ability to intercept Russian attack drones.
Ukraine’s defense ministry is in talks with SpaceX to resolve the issue and is seeking more information from the US Defense Department, the sources said.
Ukraine’s attack in August on Russia’s Progress Rocket Space Center, the Rassvet satellite deployments, and the impacts of repeated Starlink outages underscore how space has emerged as a key focus of the war.
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