Video: Ukraine Attacked Russia's Main Military Space Launch Site, Plesetsk
Ukrainian Armed Forces drones flew as far as the Arkhangelsk region—located approximately 1,900 km from the border with Ukraine—for the first time. Their target may have been the Plesetsk Cosmodrome, Russia’s only active military spaceport.
According to the Supernova+ monitoring Telegram channel, preliminary reports indicate that the Plesetsk Cosmodrome was targeted.
In the morning, a UAV alert was issued in the Arkhangelsk region of the Russian Federation. Governor Oleksandr Tsybulsky urged residents to take cover and warned that mobile internet service would be shut down. He did not report on the consequences of the attack.
The day before, drones were first spotted over Pinezh. District Head Lyudmila Kolik stated that “strategic targets” were the objective of the attack. In total, 40 UAVs were destroyed over the region. No casualties were reported. Prior to this, authorities had warned of the threat of drone attacks on August 12 and August 1.
It is noted that tests of the latest “Sarmat” intercontinental ballistic missile have been conducted repeatedly at this spaceport. In addition, in 2026, “Soyuz-2” and “Angara” rockets carrying military satellites and spacecraft from the “Svitanok” orbital constellation—which the Russian Ministry of Defense considers an analogue of Starlink—were successfully launched from there on several occasions.
As a reminder, Robert Brovdi (call sign “Madyar”), commander of the Ukrainian Armed Forces’ Unmanned Systems Forces, reported on August 23 on the results of operations against Russian terrorist targets.
The Ukrainian Defense Forces carried out localized counterattacks and advanced on several sections of the front. According to the Institute for the Study of War, Ukrainian forces halted the Russian advance in the Kozacha Lopan area and also achieved successes near Kostiantynivka and in the Zaporizhzhia region.
On the night of August 23, Ukrainian forces struck several key Russian military targets in occupied Crimea. Among them were a radar station, a storage and launch site for unmanned surface vessels, and a relay station for controlling attack drones.
