The State Administration of Defense has previously reported on the data received from the satellite. As of June 2024, the satellite had taken and transmitted to the department over four thousand images.
A number of both Russian and Ukrainian sources stated that the Defense Ministry had never received any data from the so-called Prytula’s satellite from the Finnish company ICEYE. It supposedly remains unknown what the donations, for which the satellite was purchased, went towards.
But this news is fake. It first appeared on the 360news: usually the media works as a news aggregator and does not publish original content. Thus, it is unusual that this particular media outlet, citing unnamed «sources in the Defense Ministry», reported that the satellite allegedly does not transmit any data to the Ministry. The short article provided neither evidence, nor even direct quotes from the so-called sources.
Yet in fact, data from the ICEYE satellite is sent to the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Defense Ministry, where analysts process the images and use the information received to plan operations. This was reported back in 2024. In almost two years, the satellite took more than 4,170 images of Russian territory. It recorded airfields, air defense positions, ammunition depots, oil bases and other military facilities. About 38% of these images were used to prepare strikes on enemy targets. Thanks to radar technology, the satellite can receive images even in cloudy weather or at night, which makes reconnaissance continuous, and also shows even carefully camouflaged accumulations of equipment. This approach allows to effectively track the movement of equipment and the enemy’s preparation for attacks. Moreover, the intelligence even shared examples of satellite images — in particular, air defense positions in the Belgorod region and the Kerch Bridge in Crimea.
As a reminder, initially the funds for which the satellite was purchased were collected to purchase three Bayraktar drones. However, the company ultimately decided to transfer the drones to Ukraine free of charge, so on the advice of the Ministry of Defense, GUR and the General Staff, the collected donations were directed to purchase access to data from one of the ICEYE satellites. The then Minister of Defense, Alexei Reznikov, stated that in just two days the satellite helped to detect and destroy more than 60 units of Russian equipment and inflict damage on the enemy in an amount exceeding the cost of the satellite itself.
We reached out to the GUR for comment on the misinformation, but had not received a response at the time of publication.
We have previously refuted reports that the ICEYE satellite purchased by Ukrainians is used for news broadcasting.
