Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha announced on Friday, Aug. 28, that Kyiv has petitioned the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) to block the Russian military satellite system “Rassvet” from operating over Ukrainian territory.
Sybiha stated that a formal note was submitted to the ITU Radiocommunication Bureau through Ukraine’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations and other international organizations in Geneva.
The request demands the exclusion of Ukraine’s national territory from the declared service areas of all Rassvet satellite networks across all frequency bands.
“The purpose for Russia to use such satellites over the territory of Ukraine is absolutely clear and it has nothing to do with civilian purposes,” Sybiha wrote on X. He stated that Moscow intends to use the system to support its war effort and commit “genocidal crimes.”
The foreign minister called on international partners to support Kyiv’s position and take measures to block Rassvet’s functioning over their own sovereign territories.
He also credited the Ministry of Digital Transformation and the Ukrainian State Centre of Radio Frequencies for coordinating the diplomatic effort.
Rassvet development and operational hurdles
Rassvet is being developed by the Russian firm Bureau 1440 as a domestic alternative to SpaceX’s Starlink. The system became critical for Moscow after Ukrainian forces collaborated with SpaceX to introduce a registration system in February, cutting off Russian troops’ unauthorized access to Starlink terminals on the front lines.
According to Ukrainian military intelligence, Bureau 1440 plans to launch 292 satellites by 2027, when the system is slated to become commercially available.
However, the program has faced recent technical setbacks. Two satellites from a July 20 launch failed their orbit-raising maneuvers and risk burning up in the atmosphere.
Three other satellites from the same batch are hovering at suboptimal altitudes, while nine more are maneuvering well below their target heights. An earlier test satellite launched in March was also confirmed lost in June.
Despite these deployment failures, analysts warn that the system is already providing limited operational capability. Tracking data from the N2YO service indicates the Russian satellites pass over Ukraine four times a day, providing at least two stable “communication windows” daily, each lasting over an hour.