One of the most important geostrategic points for Russia during the course of the war is its space bases.

Because no state that cannot establish military superiority in Earth’s orbit has any chance of achieving lasting and decisive victory on the battlefield.

Russia currently has three main space bases operating at full operational capacity.

These are Placets, the heart of military operations, Bikenor, the historic and least facility, and Bostokni, the new generation independence project.

For Putin, these massive facilities are not merely launch pads.

They are also the greatest symbols of his repressive regime and global power.

In particular, the projection of military power into space forms the foundational building block of the Kremlin’s perception of invincibility.

Because it is at these facilities that the test launches of the nuclear missiles, Putin’s primary threat cards against Ukraine and Europe are conducted.

The most dangerous actors in this deterrence game are the massive intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of striking continents within minutes.

The fate of these enormous and destructive weapons is directly tied to Russia’s space infrastructure.

The launch and orbital tests of strategic nuclear missiles are generally carried out at these highsecurity space bases, but the dynamics of the war have begun to shake Russia’s untouchable backyard in a shocking way.

The Kiev administration has completely updated its asymmetric warfare doctrine and decided to strike the enemy’s lifelines at their weakest moments.

Ukraine has recently placed Russia’s most valuable assets, its space bases, directly in its crosshairs.

The massive placets space launch site in Archangels Oblast became the center of a highly sophisticated and unprecedented long range drone attack.

The Placets base where this shocking strike occurred is by no means an ordinary launch site.

Established in 1957 as an ICBM base, it is a strategic fortress that holds the distinction of being the world’s northernmost active spaceport.

With its debris impact zones opening toward the North Pole, it is an irreplaceable gateway for the Russian military to reach high inclination and polar orbits.

At the same time, this base is the number one test range for Russia’s doomsday weapon, the Sarmat nuclear missiles.

In other words, we’re talking about one of Putin’s most prized assets among his space bases.

By reaching this point, the Ukrainian military demonstrated its long range drone capability against the infrastructure of Russian nuclear deterrence.

So, how did the Ukrainians strike such a critical and heavily secured space?

In fact, Placets Cosmo is one of the regions with the densest air defense networks among Russia’s strategic facilities.

This vast complex is protected by a multi-layered air defense umbrella.

Long range S400 Triumph batteries remain constantly on alert in the area for distant threats.

[music] The S400 systems with a range of up to 400 km are designed to destroy enemy aircraft and cruise missiles before they even appear on the horizon.

Around the space base, medium-range Buck M3 and TORM M2 systems come into play, while close-in defense is handled by Pancier SMD systems that virtually allow nothing to fly in the vicinity.

In particular, the new generation Pancier SMD variants specialized against drone threats form a steel net over placets cosmo with their 48 short-range missiles.

In addition, powerful electronic warfare systems and early warning radar networks fed by satellites operate continuously in the region.

Yet, Ukraine penetrated this supposedly impenetrable massive shield with an extremely clever asymmetric warfare tactic.

In the attack, long range unmanned aerial vehicles with low radar signatures launched from Ukraine’s northern border were used.

These drones flew just below the radar horizon using riverbeds and geographic obstacles as shields to advance undetected by enemy radars.

Fixed wing unmanned systems of the firepoint FP1 or Liut type capable of remaining airborne for more than 12 hours also possessed special guidance systems resistant to electronic jamming.

According to initial reports, Russian air defenses claimed to have destroyed approximately 40 Ukrainian drones in the area.

However, this massive drone swarm is believed to have been a perfectly planned trap designed to saturate Russian defenses and create target confusion.

While air defense radars locked onto dozens of decoy targets in the sky and expended their munitions, the actual strike elements aimed at placets cosmodrome were quietly gliding toward their objectives.

It is claimed that at least two drones that managed to slip through this chaos reached the Placets Cosmodrome area and that smoke was observed by local sources.

Another striking detail of this remarkable operation against Placets Cosmo beyond the fact that it was hit despite the region’s numerous layers of defense was the range of the attack.

Because the drone swarm targeting the space base was carried out from a mind-boggling distance of 1,800 to 1,900 km from the Ukrainian border.

This operation has gone down in history as one of the deepest drone strikes Ukraine has conducted on Russian territory since the start of the war.

The atmosphere of panic that followed the attack actually revealed all the realities.

While air raid sirens sounded in the region, local authorities urgently implemented the carpet plan, grounding all flights and cutting mobile internet.

The activation of the carpet plan is the number one indicator of how seriously the Russian command viewed the situation and that they had admitted losing complete control of the skies.

The reason for such massive panic was the deadly importance of the target that was struck for Russia.

Placets is not merely a rocket launch facility.

It serves as the main headquarters of the Russian space forces.

Moreover, this facility hosts the Soyuse 2 and Angara rockets that place the Lyanna signals intelligence and persona optical reconnaissance satellites into orbit.

It is the only center from which the Rosfet satellites established as an alternative to Starlink for controlling drones in Ukraine are launched into orbit.

The Rosfet network aimed at providing 5G broadband internet in low Earth orbit was a project on which the Russian military had spent billions of dollars to close its communication vulnerabilities on the front lines.

Even more importantly, this struck space is the primary test range for the massive RS28 Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missiles that NATO has cenamed Satan 2.

The Sarmat is a pure weapon of destruction.

208 tons in weight, liquidfueled with an 18,000 km range and capable of carrying more than 10 heavy nuclear warheads simultaneously.

This heavy munition had been tested repeatedly at the space base that was hit.

The production and testing process of the Sarmat missiles had already suffered major setbacks from catastrophic explosions in 2023 and 2024.

In particular, the devastating explosion at the Yubil Naya silo in September 2024 caused the missile to open a massive crater and completely destroy the entire launch infrastructure.

Now, the massive silos from which the missiles are launched and the test infrastructure are directly under Ukraine’s strike capability.

After the attack, Placets appears to have completely ceased being a safe area for such strategic nuclear tests.

Because with this shocking move, Ukraine sent Russia the following message.

We can strike you even at the moments when you are testing your nuclear missiles.

The advantages gained are not only psychological, they are of the kind that will directly alter the military balance on the battlefield.

Russia will be forced to pull air defense systems from the front lines in order to protect these facilities 1,900 km deep.

This situation could leave Russian troops and ammunition depots on the front line completely exposed to Ukrainian air power.

In addition, the deployment of the Rasvet satellite network could slow down and the secure space-based communication network of the Russian military could be disrupted.

In other words, the operational and psychological consequences this situation will create for Russia are extremely severe.

On the other hand, this mind-boggling attack is actually only the latest link in a much larger and systematic space war that Ukraine has launched.

Ukraine’s attacks on Russia’s other space bases and communication centers are advancing as part of a massive strategy.

On August 15th, 2026, Ukrainian forces struck the Progress rocket and space center in the Samara region.

This facility was the most critical industrial hub for the production of the Soyuse 2 rockets that Russia launches into space.

In the attack carried out with FP5 Flamingo cruise missiles, the electronics and assembly buildings were directly hit.

A few months earlier in June 2026, Ukraine made an even more critical move by targeting the Dubna and Vladimir space communication centers.

The massive 32m communication antennas and military modem halls at these centers were destroyed by kamicazi drones.

These attacks confirmed by Ukrainian President Womir Zalinski himself inflicted serious damage on Russia’s express satellite network.

So why is Keev targeting Russia’s space bases?

These systematic operations by the armed forces of Ukraine aim to essentially blind and deafen the Russian space forces.

Striking the production facility, striking the launch center, and striking the ground control stations is no coincidence.

This chain reaction has the potential to paralyze Russia’s orbital military intelligence capabilities during the war.

The interruption of real-time imagery from satellites means that Russian tanks and missile launchers will be left completely blind on the battlefield.

This systematic hunt of space infrastructure is also the clearest proof that Ukraine will turn to new targets in the coming period.

Taking all of this into account, Russia’s other massive space bases may rank at the top of Ukraine’s future target list.

At the head of these targets is the historic Biconor Ksmodrome located on Kazakhstan’s territory but leased by Russia.

Biconor lies approximately 1,800 to 2,500 km from the Ukrainian border depending on the route.

This is an invaluable center where manned flights to the International Space Station are conducted and heavy proton rockets are launched.

At the same time, this base [music] spread over a vast area of 6,717 km is the heart of Russian space history and the place from which the legendary cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin went into space.

For Ukrainian drones that struck Placets from 1,900 km away, Biconor is definitely within reach in terms of range.

If the Ukrainian general staff decides, it could organize a massive raid on this base with long range drone swarms of the Dovebush T40 or FP1 series.

Such an attack would completely halt Russia’s international space program and inflict irreparable damage on its prestige.

Although Bikenor’s location inside Kazakhstan’s borders creates a risk of diplomatic crisis for Ukraine, the military value it provides may make that risk worth taking.

Another operational basemi cosmmorome is located in a m oblast very close to the Chinese border.

This facility approximately 7,000 km from the Ukrainian border currently lies well outside existing drone ranges.

However, the Yasmi space in Russia’s Orinberg region converted from ICBM missiles is under the gun with its approximate 1,500 km distance.

Looking at this entire picture, Ukraine’s position in the space war is extraordinary enough to enter world military history because Ukraine has never had a fixed operational orbital spaceport in the traditional sense.

Yet, despite this, it inherited massive rocket production facilities such as Yuzjmash in the city of Denipro from the Soviet era.

In fact, Russia’s legendary Satan nuclear missiles were once designed by Ukrainian engineers on these very lands.

Nevertheless, Ukrainians who do not even possess a single launchpad are capable of wiping Russia’s massive space bases off the map.

Ukraine has not stopped there.

Without a fixed spaceport, it has successfully begun testing an air cosmo drrome project by launching rockets from Antininov 70 transport aircraft at high altitude.

There is only one explanation for all these details.

Drone warfare has reached an unprecedented dimension never before seen in the history of war.

On the other hand, the effects of this asymmetric drone war are not limited to space bases.

They are also tearing the Russian aviation sector apart.

In the last few days, the Russian air force has suffered successive historic blows deep behind the front lines.

On the night of August 20th, drones belonging to the armed forces of Ukraine infiltrated the Octubinsk airfield in the Astroan region.

[music] Located approximately 650 km deep from the front line, this airfield is the main base of the 929th state flight test center where the Russian Ministry of Defense tests its most secret weapons.

In this [music] attack, a Sue 34 multi-roll fighter bomber used by Russia to drop guided bombs on the front line was directly hit.

Satellite imagery clearly showed how this $50 million war machine was struck.

Neutralizing these bombers has the potential to directly cut the guided munition attacks that the Russian military uses, especially in trench warfare and that target Ukrainian cities.

This is truly a critical situation for Putin.

But the blow that came immediately after the Sue34 was hit was even more shocking and large scale.

Ukrainian forces violently struck the Saki airfield in occupied Crimea.

In this attack, a Russian Sue 24M bomber was completely destroyed while four critical pieces of airfield equipment were reduced to [music] scrap.

As Russia remained helpless against slowflying piston engine drones, it tried to find a solution by producing fast jet engine drones.

Jet versions of Shahed drones reaching speeds of 500 kmh created a new wave of threat over the skies of Kev.

While Ukrainian air defenses successfully shoot down 95% of the piston engine unmanned vehicles flying at 185 km per hour, the speed of the new generation Jirean 5 models was poised to change the balance.

But Ukrainian engineers immediately developed their own jet engine interceptor drones against this threat.

Ukraine’s first jet interceptor aircraft, the Alexa Spacium, officially entered service and began hunting Russian jet drones in the air.

This new system is a high-speed reusable engineering marvel capable of neutralizing not only drones but also ground targets and combat helicopters.

This technological competition in the air and space inevitably spilled over into Russia’s logistics and economic arteries as well.

Following all these developments, the massive civilian and military logistics centers that feed the Russian army began to become targets one by one.

On the morning of August 23rd, the Ukrainian army struck the massive warehouse of Ozan, one of Russia’s largest e-commerce and logistics giants.

This giant logistics complex in the city of Orinberg was hit deadon by a Ukrainian FP1 attack drone and turned into a fireball.

Published satellite imagery proves that the horrific fire that broke out after the attack burned this massive facility to its foundations and paralyzed the company’s supply network.

At the same time, the Chapiok Depot in the Samara region and the Nova Quebec oil refinery a thousand kilometers from the front line also suffered heavy damage.

The striking of this refinery which has an annual crude oil processing capacity of 8.3 million tons is shaking not only the military mechanism but the war economy itself to its roots.

On the other hand, this new hunting strategy developed by Ukraine has begun to cover not only aerial targets, but also missile launch points.

The Kev administration, facing a critical shortage of Patriot air defense missiles expected from the west, has focused on solving the problem by destroying enemy missiles on their launchers before they even take off.

A massive Russian Iscander ballistic missile launcher positioned near the border was detected by Ukrainian forces and immediately destroyed.

The effects of these successive waves of attacks have been quite severe for Russia.

This entire operational chain demonstrates in all its nakedness that the nature of the war is not limited to trench warfare on the front lines.

The war is now being won or lost in the skies, at space bases, in logistics depots, and in the speed race of jet engine drones.

While Russia exhausts its resources to protect its vast territory and strategic assets, Ukraine’s range grows longer with every passing day.

From the Placets space where Sarmat nuclear missiles are launched to the [music] Sue34 bombers at Octubinsk, nowhere may be safe any longer.

Because striking these massive facilities thousands of kilometers behind the front line has forever shattered the Kremlin’s myth of an invincible rear area.

[music] This new stage of the war stands before us as the most vivid proof of how technology and intelligence can bring massive military budgets to their knees.

Russia’s massive space program and air forces appear set to continue bleeding in the face of asymmetric drone threats.

So, what do you think about everything that’s been happening?

How will Ukraine strike on this space base 1,900 km deep affect Putin’s nuclear threat rhetoric?

And in the next stage of the war, could dog fights between jet engine drones completely replace traditional air forces on the front line?

We look forward to your comments.

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