Ukraine hits Russia's key rocket plant in Samara with cruise missiles

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced on Saturday via the social media platform X that Ukrainian forces had struck the Progress Rocket Space Center located deep inside Russian territory. He said the target was one of the key enterprises of Russia's space agency Roscosmos, which is involved, among other things, in electronics production. Ground-launched Flamingo cruise missiles were used in the strike.

Samara, the largest city in the Samara region, lies roughly 900 kilometers from the Ukrainian border. The city hosts Russia's most important rocket manufacturing facility, where the workhorse Soyuz-2 launch vehicle is assembled alongside the newer Soyuz-5 rocket. The plant also produces military satellites.

The plant's role in Russia's space program

The Soyuz-2 rocket, capable of lifting about eight metric tons to low-Earth orbit, serves a range of civilian and military purposes for Russia. It is the primary vehicle Russia uses to launch crewed spacecraft to the International Space Station.

It remains unclear exactly which buildings within the sprawling Progress facility were damaged. Some open-source reports indicated a missile struck a building housing a clean room used for avionics work, which may correspond to the electronics production Zelenskyy referenced. Russia was already facing a shortage of Soyuz rockets prior to the strike.