Russian troops freely use American satellite images for strikes on Ukraine

Buying satellite images of Ukraine has become dangerously easy. Russia conducts long-range strikes using images provided by American companies, reports The Atlantic.

According to a source cited by the publication, the sequence is as follows: a satellite takes pictures of a target, and then, several days or weeks later, a missile strikes it. Sometimes, another satellite is sent afterward to obtain additional images, possibly to assess the extent of damage. The number of instances where strikes follow satellite images is too high to be random.

The publication provides an example of such a case, dating back to the beginning of the war. “Sometimes, a coincidence is just a coincidence. However, suspicious cases are accumulating, and since many companies that deal with satellite imagery offer a list of archival images with dates and coordinates, one can review tens of thousands of images taken in Ukraine and notice suspicious patterns. In the week leading up to April 2, 2022, approximately a month after Russia’s initial invasion, images of the remote airfield near Myrhorod, Ukraine, were requested from American companies at least nine times. Myrhorod, aside from this airfield, is not particularly interesting. On April 2, missiles struck there. The following week, someone requested photos of the airfield again,” write the journalists.