Satellite resources, access to satellite group data are purchased with donations - Andrii Kolesnyk

He shared this information with Espreso TV. 

"It is possible to buy a satellite, but it must be done at the stage when it is still being produced and launched under its own flag. To date, all satellites of the Finnish company ICEYE are produced under the flag of Finland and registered in the UN registry. And we bought the resources of one of the satellites of this Finnish company. That is, we can fully order his work in the interests of the Armed Forces.  In addition to the resources of one satellite, which will work only for us, we got access to the data of the entire satellite group of the company", the former adviser to the head of Derzhkosmos explained. 

Andrii Kolesnyk added that if the satellite isn't over the territory of Ukraine, then Ukrainians will be able to use images from other satellites from the group.

"Regarding the price, it must be said that before the war, we purchased satellite images mainly from optical satellites, and images from radar satellites were always much more expensive. Therefore, taking into account the factors of the increase in satellites and the purchase of data from more expensive technology than we bought before the war,  then we can say that the price is really adequate", he noted. 

Kolesnyk commented on the satellite data that Ukrainians receive for free from partner countries, but the work of these satellites is still not free, and their cost is paid by the governments of the countries as part of military aid to Ukraine. Having a large amount of data from various satellites, these images are useful for Ukraine, but they are more related to the optical range.

"In general, there are currently about 200 satellites working for Ukraine, among them there are several dozen radar satellites, but they all provide worse quality than the one we will receive from the Finnish satellite group. And this is important for us, because we will have immediate direct access to satellite data, while as part of the military aid, we do not get 100 percent direct satellite images and even with some delay, and here we will be able to take and process the data independently", the former adviser of the head of Derzhkosmos noted