Overnight on June 22, the Armed Forces of Ukraine struck the Dubna Space Communications Center in the Moscow region, according to the General Staff of the AFU.
The Ukrainian military said in its report that the facility was hit, that heavy smoke was observed at the site, and that the extent of the damage was still being clarified.
The attack was also confirmed by the press service of Space Communications, the parent enterprise overseeing the center. It said the facility had come under a mass drone attack.
“The operation of television broadcasting and communications has not been disrupted. Measures are being taken to eliminate the consequences. No personnel at the space communications center were injured.”
The Dubna Space Communications Center was commissioned in 1980 as a facility connected with the Moscow Olympics. During the Games, its role was to provide broadcast transmission to countries in Europe and the Atlantic region.
After the Olympics, the report says, one of the center’s functions became organizing a direct government communications line between the Kremlin and the White House in the United States.
On the Space Communications website, the center is described as Russia’s largest teleport and one of the biggest in Europe. The site also says it now handles a broad range of satellite communications tasks.