President Volodymyr Zelensky has signed a decree imposing sanctions on 10 companies and 19 Russian nationals connected to them who are involved in building the Rassvet satellite system. The Presidential Office in Kyiv announced this on Thursday, according to the news agency Ukrinform.
According to the Presidential Office, Rassvet is Russia’s attempt to build its own satellite system in low Earth orbit and to use it in the war against Ukraine and as a threat to the whole world. The system is intended to give Russia a Starlink-like network in order to command troops and to guide and control attack drones — including Shahed drones — and missiles in real time.
According to Ukrinform, the sanctioned companies include 5S Group, a supplier of foreign industrial equipment and developer of RMatic-brand industrial computers, as well as the Akvamash production association for metalworking and precision parts. Also affected are L-Optics, a provider of optical, telecommunications and laser technology as well as photonic and quantum communication systems, the Elesar Group as a supplier of foreign electronic components, and the company Small Spacecraft, which develops space technology and ground-based satellite communications. An RMatic computer is said to have been supplied to an already sanctioned manufacturer of electronic warfare systems and Orlan drones and used in research work for Bureau 1440.
“The project depends on foreign technologies, equipment and components, which is why we are hitting these supply chains already at the development stage and call on our partners to align their sanctions,” Vladyslav Vlasiuk, the President’s Commissioner for Sanctions Policy, said according to Ukrinform.
The second package covers 39 seagoing vessels under the flags of Russia (17), Barbados, Liberia, the Marshall Islands and Panama (3 each), Hong Kong and Djibouti (2 each), as well as the Bahamas, Equatorial Guinea, Zimbabwe, Cameroon, Palau and Sierra Leone (1 each). According to the Presidential Office, they transport Russian crude oil, oil products and gas condensate to China, India, Egypt, Turkey and other countries. Some of the ships are already under sanctions from the EU, the United Kingdom, the USA, Canada, Switzerland and Australia. Ukraine intends to share the information with its partners in order to align the sanctions internationally.
