Kadastik says Russian satellite’s approach to Finnish spacecraft was deliberate provocation

Physicist and Estonian MP Mario Kadastik described a Russian military satellite’s approach to a Finnish radar satellite as a deliberate and highly dangerous provocation, ERR reported. He said the maneuver could have caused a collision.

“The Russians simply came and parked their satellite a few dozen metres away. That is unprecedented and extremely dangerous,” Kadastik said on the Vikerhommik morning programme on Wednesday.

Satellites travel at very high speeds, he said, and even a small difference in the timing of a thruster adjustment could shift an orbit by tens of metres. At such close range, that could lead to a collision.

The Finnish company Iceye built the radar satellite, which is designed to monitor activity on the ground. Radar allows it to collect images at night and through clouds, with a resolution of about 20 centimetres, Kadastik said. He added that the satellite can identify vehicles and other objects and image areas several times an hour. Its data is regularly provided to Ukraine to monitor activity in border regions.

Russia sent its Kosmos 2612 satellite close to the Iceye spacecraft. According to some sources cited by Kadastik, Kosmos 2612 moved close again whenever the Finnish satellite tried to move away.

Kadastik said this pattern suggested the approach was not accidental. While he considered espionage a possible motive, he said it was unlikely because the way radar satellites work is well known. He suggested instead that a metal object near the radar could disrupt its operation by scattering its signal and creating noise. The satellite may also have been positioned there to conceal the movements of some Russian units, he said.

Another possibility, Kadastik said, was that Russia was simply “showing muscle.” He called the maneuver a hybrid attack and said it amounted to a further Russian escalation in a new domain. He said he hoped NATO would respond, noting that the Iceye satellite, although built by a Finnish company, was licensed and launched by a US subsidiary.