Ukraine's Defence Ministry has new space policy department
Source: Kateryna Chernohorenko, Deputy Minister of Defence for Digitalisation at the Space For Ukraine forum, as reported by Ukrainian public broadcaster Suspilne
Quote: "We have a law on space activities, which states that the Ministry of Defence should formulate a policy in the field of military space. This is not only the purchase of innovative solutions from engineers, it is not only the creation of a community so that the best solutions come to Ukraine, but it is also the creation of space troops."
Details: Chernohorenko said that the defence ministry plans to become the main customer in Ukraine for space technology, products and services. And this office should bring together public and private institutions and space scientists to interact with Ukraine's defence forces.
"We want all the innovators, all the engineers who are thinking about how to develop space technologies to know the contacts, to understand the digital entry points, to interact with us [the Ministry of Defence - ed.]. The directorate is a coordination centre, a centre for generating meanings, a centre for generating policies," the official explained.
She added that by 2030, Ukraine plans to have national satellites for defence purposes, as well as an air-raid warning and space control system.
In January 2021, the Cabinet of Ministers approved the concept of the National Targeted Scientific and Technical Space Programme of Ukraine for 2021-2025. It envisaged the creation of up to two thousand new jobs in the space industry and the growth of scientific and technical personnel in this area.
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Newsweek
13 minutes ago
- Newsweek
Russia Using Donald Trump Peace Talks to Divide US and Europe: ISW
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. The upcoming summit between President Donald Trump and his counterpart Vladimir Putin is being used by the Kremlin to divide the U.S. from Europe over the war in Ukraine, according to analysis. That assessment by the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) comes amid a diplomatic flurry involving Ukraine's European allies and concerns that Friday's talks between the leaders in Alaska could present the Russian president with an advantage. Russian officials want to weaken cohesion between the U.S, Ukraine and Europe by promoting the latter two as barriers to a deal to end the war, the Washington, D.C.-based think tank said. 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The Hill
41 minutes ago
- The Hill
Germany invites Trump, Zelenskyy, NATO, EU leaders to a virtual meeting before Trump-Putin summit
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Los Angeles Times
an hour ago
- Los Angeles Times
Europe says a U.S.-Russia summit this week cannot decide on Ukraine land swaps
BRUSSELS — Ukraine and its backers in Europe insist that the United States and Russia cannot decide on land swaps behind their backs at a summit this week, but the Europeans concede that Moscow is unlikely to give up control of Ukrainian land it holds. Ahead of the summit in Alaska on Friday, President Trump suggested that a peace deal could include 'some swapping of territories,' but the Europeans see no sign that Russia will offer anything to swap. Europeans and Ukrainians so far are not invited to the summit. European Union foreign ministers are meeting on Monday following talks on Ukraine among U.S. and European security advisers over the weekend. They are concerned that President Vladimir Putin will try to claim a political victory by portraying Ukraine as inflexible. Concerns have mounted in Europe and Ukraine that Kyiv may be pressed to give up land or accept other curbs on its sovereignty. Ukraine and its European allies reject the notion that Putin should lay claim to any territory even before agreeing to a ceasefire. 'As we work towards a sustainable and just peace, international law is clear: All temporarily occupied territories belong to Ukraine,' EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said ahead of the ministerial meeting. 'A sustainable peace also means that aggression cannot be rewarded,' Kallas said. Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said 'it must be obvious to Poland and our European partners — and I hope to all of NATO — that state borders cannot be changed by force.' Any land swaps or peace terms 'must be agreed upon with Ukraine's participation,' he said, according to Polish news agency PAP. On Sunday, Chancellor Friedrich Merz said Germany would not accept that territorial issues be discussed or decided by Russia and the United States 'over the heads' of Europeans or Ukrainians. Still, it's hard to ignore the reality on the ground. Russia in 2022 illegally annexed the Donetsk and Luhansk regions in Ukraine's east, and Kherson and Zaporizhzhia in the south, even though it doesn't fully control them. It also occupies the Crimean Peninsula, which it seized in 2014. On the 620-mile front line, Russia's bigger army has made slow but costly progress with its summer offensive. The relentless pounding of urban areas has killed more than 12,000 Ukrainian civilians, according to U.N. estimates. 'In the end, the issue of the fact that the Russians are controlling at this moment, factually, a part of Ukraine has to be on the table' in any peace talks after the Alaska summit, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said on CBS on Sunday. Rutte said Ukraine's Western backers 'can never accept that in a legal sense,' but he suggested that they might tacitly acknowledge Russian control. He compared it to the way that the U.S. hosted the diplomatic missions of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania from 1940 to 1991, 'acknowledging that the Soviet Union was controlling those territories, but never accepting (it) in a legal sense.' Giving up any territory, especially without a ceasefire agreement first, would be almost impossible for Zelensky to sell at home after thousands of troops have died defending their land. Ultimately, Putin is seen by some analysts as being not so much interested in land itself, but rather in a more 'Russia-friendly' Ukraine with a malleable government unlikely to try to join NATO, just as pro-Russian breakaway regions in Georgia have complicated that country's quest to become a member. Zelensky insists that a halt to fighting on the front line should be the starting point for negotiations, and the Europeans back him. They say that any future land swaps should be for Ukraine to decide and not be a precondition for a ceasefire. Claims on land could also be part of negotiations on the kind of security guarantees that Ukraine might receive to ensure another war does not break out. The Europeans believe Kyiv's best defense is strong armed forces to deter Russia from striking again. They insist there should be no restrictions on the size of Ukraine's army and the equipment, arms and ammunition it can possess or sell. Beyond that, they say Ukraine should not be constrained in its choice of joining the EU or being forced to become a neutral country. The Trump administration has already taken Ukraine's membership of NATO off the table for the foreseeable future. Cook writes for the Associated Press. AP writers Dasha Litvinova, and Jamey Keaten in Geneva contributed.
