The Serhiy Prytula Charity Foundation, Ukrainian TV presenter and Serhiy Prytula Charity Foundation volunteer, has signed an agreement with the Finnish company ICEYE, which will provide the Armed Forces of Ukraine (APU) with access to its orbital satellites. The announcement was made on Thursday, August 18, by the head of the fund and the press service of ICEYE.

“As part of the agreement, ICEYE will transfer all capabilities of one of its SAR satellites already in orbit for use by the Ukrainian government in the region. The SAR satellite will be operated by ICEYE,” the company said in a press release. . “Furthermore, ICEYE will provide access to its constellation of SAR satellites, which will allow the Armed Forces of Ukraine to receive radar images of critical locations with high refresh rate.”

The cost of the deal was not disclosed, but according to Prytula, the acquisition of access to the satellites used money that was raised in June during a campaign to raise funds for Bayraktar drones for the Ukrainian army. We are talking about more than 600 million hryvnia (about 16.25 million euros). Since the Turkish company Baykar, which produces drones, undertook to transfer three drones to Kyiv free of charge, according to Sergiy Prytula, it was decided to spend the money raised, in agreement with the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense, to buy the right to use the satellite. of Finnish radar for one year.

Prytula: Ukrainians – you are a force!

“I know of no other case in history where people, young and old, bought a satellite for their state! Ukrainians are the strength! And our unity gives us hope of victory,” Prytula said in a video message on her Facebook page. YouTube. According to him, the agreement with ICEYE will allow the Ukrainian army to quickly receive high-quality satellite images that will help in the operational planning of operations.

The Finnish company ICEYE is involved in the production of microsatellites for remote observation of the Earth’s surface. The company’s press release notes that its satellites capture radar images of the Earth’s surface at any time of day and in all weather conditions. ICEYE has the world’s largest fleet (21) of commercial Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) satellites. This technology makes it possible to obtain images of the Earth’s surface regardless of the presence of lighting and clouds.

The strategic command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine highly appreciated the capabilities of Finnish satellites: “SAR systems, thanks to automatic object recognition using distributed radar images and digital signal processing, are able to see … through obstacles. speaking, not that dense clouds, but even the walls of buildings for this system is not an obstacle.”