The Atlantic: Russia can buy detailed satellite images from American companies for missile strikes on Ukraine

Missile strikes in the rear of Ukraine are probably carried out with the help of satellite images of American companies, which Russia buys through intermediaries.

The Atlantic writes about this with reference to a Ukrainian military source.

The Ukrainian side sees a regularity — satellites take pictures of places in Ukraine to order, they are bought, and after a few days or weeks a cruise missile arrives at the photographed place. Sometimes after that, another satellite takes additional images, perhaps to check the level of damage.

The source says that the number of coincidences where a photo is followed by a hit is too great to be a coincidence.

Clear satellite images of companies such as Planet or Maxar can be bought through intermediary sites. Both companies provided images of Ukrainian facilities later hit by Russian missiles.

The companies themselves assure that they carefully check their customers and comply with the US resolution, which prohibits transactions with Russia from the beginning of the full-scale invasion of the Russian Federation into Ukraine. The companies say they provide images to "responsible entities" such as governments or government agencies.

Experts interviewed by The Atlantic believe that Planet and Maxar are not interested in cooperation with Russia and have good contracts with the US Department of Defense, but they are unlikely to be able to very carefully check the customers of the pictures — this requires a huge resource. Today, the situation is such that it is very easy to order high-quality pictures through intermediaries, paying little money — from $1 000 to $1 200.