SPATIAL DOMINANCE IN THE UKRAINIAN CONFLICT

By José Maria Martínez Cortés, Analyst at the Centre for International Security, Francisco de Vitoria University

Three decades after the first Gulf War, sometimes referred to as the first space war, the war between Russia and Ukraine is perhaps, according to David Burbach, a professor at the US Naval War College, the first space war between two sides. However, Russian skirmishes in LEO (low) orbit began even before its first battle tanks set foot on Ukrainian soil. As this conflict has shown, having control of space and the satellites that enable constant communication with the adversary is key to gaining advantage in today's conflicts, and will be even more so in future ones.

In the invasion of Ukraine, before the first shot was fired, the Russian military intelligence directorate launched an attack that knocked out thousands of routers on the ground connected to the US satellite network of the Viasat communications company, a network that allowed Zelenski and his military commanders to communicate with their soldiers. The Russian plan was to deploy a kind of digital iron curtain to isolate the Ukrainian high command, while on the ground Russian tanks advanced to capture the capital, Kiev. In turn, the attack was accompanied by artillery fire aimed at TV and telecommunications towers. The strategy was to smother the Ukrainian army in the ‘fog of war’, according to the director of space security and stability at the US think tank Secure World Foundation.

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