Ukraine Parliament Backs Space Forces to Counter Oreshnik Threat

Ukraine’s Verkhovna Rada on Monday gave first-reading approval to a bill that would create Space Forces inside the Armed Forces, with 252 lawmakers voting to adopt draft No. 13255 as a basis.

The legislation amends the Law “On the Armed Forces of Ukraine” to clarify the force structure and open an organizational track for space-domain capabilities, according to parliamentary reporting carried by UNN and Ukrinform.

Lawmakers and the bill’s explanatory memorandum frame the new branch around early warning of enemy missile launches, national secure satellite communications, and a larger Ukrainian reconnaissance constellation—goals that also aim to cut dependence on partner systems.

Countering Oreshnik-Class Threats

A core driver is Russia’s Oreshnik intermediate-range ballistic missile, which climbs on a partly exoatmospheric trajectory before dispersing multiple reentry vehicles.

Moscow used the system against Dnipro in November 2024 and again in the Lviv region in January 2026, with further reported uses since. Ukrainian ground-based air defenses typically engage far lower than the altitudes where such missiles travel in near space.

Defense committee lawmaker Fedir Venislavskyi, a co-author of the Space Forces push, has argued that intercepting a carrier before warheads separate is far more feasible than chasing multiple hypersonic vehicles on the way down—and that early detection and public warning must come first.

Those missile pressures sit alongside Russia’s prior combat use of the rare Oreshnik system in a major strike on Ukraine.

Own Satellites, Less Partner Dependence

The explanatory note says Ukraine can build satellites and launch vehicles for the security and defense sector, enabling its own missile-launch early warning, exoatmospheric countermeasures, secure national satellite communications, and expanded intelligence collection from orbit.

That sovereignty push follows recent shocks to commercial and allied space support. Kyiv has leaned on Starlink for battlefield connectivity and on foreign imaging providers such as Finland’s ICEYE, while U.S. and commercial data pauses have periodically disrupted coordination.

President Volodymyr Zelensky has called Starlink speed limits a planned operation against Ukraine, and earlier reporting warned that Elon Musk could force Ukraine to pay hundreds of times more for Starlink.

Ukraine and Denmark’s GomSpace recently announced the Obria Nano test satellite as a first step toward a sovereign communications network. The Defense Ministry had already stood up a Space Policy Directorate to set requirements and partner with industry.

No commander for the prospective Space Forces has been named. The Monday vote is a first reading; the bill still needs further passage before the new branch is fully stood up in law.