Ukraine confirms rocket launches into space during wartime

Ukraine’s Main Intelligence Directorate conducted two successful rocket launches into space during the ongoing full-scale war with Russia, reaching altitudes of over 100 kilometers and 204 kilometers respectively, according to Fedir Venislavsky, Chairman of the Subcommittee on State Security, Defense and Defense Innovation of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on National Security, Defense and Intelligence.

Venislavsky disclosed the launches in an interview with RBC-Ukraine, describing them as combat missions executed under the command of then-Chief of the Main Intelligence Directorate Kyrylo Budanov and other GUR leadership. Both launches were officially recorded by technical means, he said.

The scope of what Venislavsky described goes well beyond the two orbital launches. The same working group within GUR also conducted what he characterized as a first for the European continent: a rocket carrier launch from a transport aircraft flying at approximately 8,000 meters altitude.

“This was done for the first time on the territory of the European continent and for the second time in world history,” Venislavsky said, noting that the United States first achieved a comparable air-launch in the mid-1970s. He added that Ukraine’s altitude record for such a launch is higher than what was previously achieved.

Venislavsky was explicit that these were not experimental or research launches. “This was the execution of combat tasks under the leadership of then-Chief of the Main Intelligence Directorate Kyrylo Budanov and other GUR leadership,” he said. “The unit achieved both unique technical results and accomplished purely military objectives.” The official did not elaborate on what specific military objectives were achieved during the space launches, but indicated they were connected to Ukraine’s capacity to engage enemy assets operating in space.

The disclosure also included details about a category of weapons that Venislavsky said remains largely unknown publicly. “We have rockets that almost no one knows about, but which are capable of striking enemy territory at distances of up to 500 kilometers and flying at hypersonic speeds,” he said. “And we are successfully using them in the course of combat operations. But their main purpose is for the execution of extraordinary operations, including those we have just been talking about.”

The statement directly links the hypersonic-class missiles to the space-launch missions conducted by the GUR unit, suggesting the rocket carriers used in the orbital launches are derived from or related to the same weapons program.

Launching a rocket from an aircraft at 8,000 meters provides a meaningful advantage over ground-based launch: the vehicle bypasses the densest and most energy-consuming portion of the atmosphere before ignition, extending its effective range and improving overall flight efficiency. “If it is launched from 8 kilometers, it performs its flight mission significantly more effectively,” Venislavsky explained, “because the first kilometers of the atmosphere are the densest and that is where the rocket expends the most energy.” The platform Ukraine has built around this concept, he said, could in the near future serve as an airborne launch site — usable for both military strike missions and the orbital deployment of satellites and other spacecraft.

That dual-use potential has direct strategic relevance. Venislavsky stated that Ukraine already has preliminary agreements with international partners who have expressed readiness to provide satellites, and that Ukraine possesses the technical potential to place those satellites into orbit. He described Ukraine as entering the club of fewer than ten countries with functioning space technologies, noting that the country’s industrial base is capable of producing rocket carriers, refining existing designs, and manufacturing various spacecraft and satellites. “Both science and industry already have experience in this field,” he said. “Therefore, everything depends on the scale of financing for these projects.”

Funding remains the binding constraint. Venislavsky acknowledged that under wartime conditions, the entire state budget is directed toward the security and defense sector, leaving insufficient resources for large-scale scientific and industrial space programs. He expressed hope that international partners would engage more actively in cooperation. Whether through domestic financing or partner-funded programs, the technical foundation — validated through two confirmed space launches and one air-launch during active combat — is already in place.