Officials say the conflict's growing reach into space is the latest evidence of the rapid militarisation of a domain whose treaties remain ill defined, outdated and difficult to enforce. Rules on governance in space, and on the deployment of weapons, have in recent years been overtaken by events.
Such measures are not necessarily kinetic. With the war, and with wide dependence on space for intelligence and communications, the domain has moved to the front of military planning. It is not the only tactic that has been seen.
Since the war, the space domain has been crucial for Ukrainian forces. Recent drops in communications, whether at the instigation of the US government or from SpaceX, jeopardised the military's command-and-control systems.
The war in Ukraine has carried the fighting beyond the battlefield and into space, where satellites that support communications, intelligence and sensors have become critical to the balance of the conflict.
Ukraine has conducted at least three tests of near-space interceptions as it has sought to launch its own sovereign satellites, joining a rapidly expanding number of countries working towards a foothold in space.
The case being made is that the response must be raised to another level, not least because Ukrainian territory is already being threatened from international space by Oreshnik missiles.
Moscow has also used Oreshnik ballistic missiles on at least three occasions. The system launches into near space, then deploys multiple independently targetable warheads initially designed for nuclear weapons.
Russia's push to deploy its Rassvet network quickly is not the only challenge Ukraine faces from space. Others, including the Europeans, now want their own versions of Starlink.
Russia has used signal jamming and laser-dazzling of satellites, and has placed"inspector"spy satellites near foreign space assets.
In a war driven by drones and battlefield sensors, access to space — and the ability to disrupt an enemy's operations there — has grown ever more important.