Ukraine says it used cruise missiles to strike a key facility of Russia’s space agency that allegedly works to help the Russian war effort. Rockets made at the facility are regularly launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, though it was not immediately clear what impact, if any, the missile attack in Russia might have on future operations at Baikonur.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on X on Saturday that there were “significant results from our deep strikes” with Flamingos, a Ukrainian ground-launched cruise missile that Ukraine says has a range of 3,000 kilometers.
“In Russia’s Samara region, one of the key enterprises within Roscosmos – the Progress Center, which was involved, among other things, in electronics production – was hit. Flamingo missiles were used. A good achievement. The distance from our border is about 900 kilometers,” Zelenskyy said. He added that Ukrainian strikes also hit Savasleyka airbase, where missiles are based, about 700 kilometers from Ukraine, as well as an oil facility in Ust-Luga, more than 800 kilometers from the border with Ukraine.
Ukraine´s General Staff issued a similar statement about the strike on the Roscosmos facility, saying on Telegram: “A hit on the target was recorded, followed by a fire on the territory of the facility.”
Vyacheslav Fedorishchev, governor of the Samara region, said two people sought medical assistance after a Ukrainian missile attack on “our industrial facility.”
There were no detailed reports on the extent of any damage at the Roscosmos-owned Progress Center, whose full name is the Progress Rocket Space Center. It has manufactured Soyuz-2 rockets used for decades to launch spacecraft carrying Russian cosmonauts and sometimes American astronauts, as well as cargo, including from Baikonur to the International Space Station. The center also makes a newer rocket model, the Soyuz-5.
Russia leases the Baikonur space facility from Kazakhstan. Roscosmos said a launch pad there was damaged during the lift-off of a crewed spacecraft in late November 2025 but was repaired in early 2026. Russian spacecraft then launched on Soyuz rockets from Baikonur in March and April of this year.
Roscosmos is a civilian entity, but Russia’s military relies on satellites and other space infrastructure provided or operated by the country’s space industry.
