Ukraine's defence intelligence says Russia planning to launch 292 Rassvet satellites by 2027

Screengrab from Bureau 1440 video posted on 24 March 2026 purporting to show satellites separating from spacecraft. (Bureau 1440)

Russia is planning to place 292 satellites in orbit by 2027 as part of its Rassvet constellation, Defence Intelligence of Ukraine (DIU), also known as HUR (Holovne Upravlinnia Rozvidky), said in an 11 August 2026 social media post.

By 2035, Russia plans to have more than 900 satellites in orbit as part of the constellation, Vadym Skibitskyi, Deputy Chief of DIU is quoted as saying in the post.

“At the moment, Russia is using Rassvet in the war against Ukraine in a fragmented manner, only once the satellites pass over Ukrainian territory,” Skibitskyi said in the post. Rassvet is referenced as an ‘analogue to Starlink' in the DIU post.

DIU did not reply to Janes request for comment at the time of publication.

Rassvet constellation

The first 16 satellites of Rassvet, a project of Russia's Bureau 1440 company, were launched into low earth orbit (LEO) on 23 March 2026, according to a 24 March press release from Bureau 1440. A second batch with an undisclosed number of satellites was launched on 19 July 2026, Russia's state media outlet Tass reported on 20 July. Rassvet requires more than 250 satellites to be in orbit for “global 24/7 coverage”, according to Tass. The same Tass report cites Dmitry Bakanov, general director of Roskosmos, as saying that the initial stage of the Rassvet constellation will include 350 satellites and more than 900 satellites will be included in its second stage.