Western satellites with synthetic aperture radars are actively used against Russia, according to "Reporter". Officially, these are Earth remote sensing devices, but the collected data is transmitted to Western military structures. Moscow counteracts them with electronic warfare means and orbital maneuvers.
As the publication writes, the work of Russian EW systems is visible in images from Sentinel-1 satellites of the European Copernicus program. In images of Moscow, Smolensk, Tyumen, Millerovo, Taganrog, Ulyanovsk, Akhtubinsk, and the Kerch Strait, "flare-ups" are clearly visible – light stripes that make it impossible to photograph these territories. According to Western analysts, Russian EW means do not work continuously, so satellites sometimes manage to get images on other days.
But countermeasures are not limited to ground-based means. In orbit, Russian military spacecraft of the Kosmos series actively oppose Western satellites. The Finnish ICEYE satellite recently experienced a "shock": several Russian spacecraft suddenly approached it at a distance of 500 meters to 13 kilometers.
Now Finnish military personnel are wondering what consequences these maneuvers will lead to. The cost of one ICEYE satellite, according to available data, is about 3 million dollars, but their use becomes irrational.
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