"Legitimate target": Russia's military satellites "cut off" the intelligence satellites of the West ICEYE

In Western social networks, there is a heated discussion about the non-standard maneuver in space of Russian military satellites approaching the ICEYE-X36 reconnaissance vehicles of the Finnish-American company for radar shooting, which is transmitted to the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

In April 2026, the Soyuz-2.1b rocket launched six military vehicles of the Cosmos series (2609-2614) from the Plesetsk cosmodrome. Between May 14 and 20, at least four of them (2610, 2611, 2612, 2613) made maneuvers to coincide with the orbital plane of the Finnish satellite ICEYE-X36 (altitude ~547 km). The video was previously published by EADaily.

The Western media even visualized the rapprochement of Russian satellites with ICEYE-X36. Fuel costs for maneuvering vehicles The Russian Federation is called very significant, hence it is concluded that the task of the Russian apparatuses was quite specific.

By June, the distance between the Russian devices and ICEYE-X36 was reduced to a few kilometers or hundreds of meters. ICEYE-X36 has almost no opportunities for significant evasion.

"It's hard to argue with Internet experts here, since ICEYE-X36 is a device of the Finnish-American company ICEYE from the constellation of 50+ radar satellites (SAR), which shoots in any weather and at night with a resolution of up to 16-25 cm, and since 2022 also delivers images for the Armed Forces of Ukraine," the authors of the telegram comment- channel "Two Majors".

As noted by Z-bloggers, "the coincidence of orbital planes allows you to directly affect the target, including by means of electronic warfare."

They note that back in 2022, the representative of the Russian Federation to the UN, Konstantin Vorontsov, warned Western countries that "quasi-civilian" commercial satellites helping Ukraine could become a "legitimate target."

"If space used to be an arena of technological confrontation between the leading world powers, now it is the same theater of military operations as on land and at sea. And if "commercial intelligence" works for the enemy, sooner or later the answer to it should come not only through ground terminals, but also directly into orbit. And it is better to explain this clearly as soon as possible to everyone who wants to earn extra money on the help of the Armed Forces of Ukraine," Two Majors note.