From spy satellites to electromagnetic intelligence: France’s contribution to Kyiv. Interview with Yves Bourdillon

Paris. On 15 January, speaking to troops gathered at the Istres military base, French President Emmanuel Macron stated that France was providing Ukraine with “two-thirds” of the “intelligence capabilities” required in its conflict with Russia and had replaced the US intelligence services in this crucial role. “A year ago, Ukraine was overwhelmingly dependent on US intelligence capabilities. Today, two-thirds come from France,” said Macron, without providing further details due to the confidential nature of the information. “When it comes to intelligence, everything is always very secret, of course, but we know what is being made available because France is the only European country to possess certain capabilities. Perhaps the proportion put forward by Macron is a little exaggerated, but Paris’s contribution is certainly substantial,” Yves Bourdillon, an expert on military and security matters who contributes to Les Echos and Contrepoints, tells Il Foglio. “First and foremost, there are the three CSO (Composante spatiale optique) military optical reconnaissance satellites. The Ukrainian services benefit from imagery from the CSO military constellation,” explains Bourdillon.

The CSO-1 satellite (at an altitude of 800 km) provides a resolution of 35 cm, whilst the CSO-2 (at 480 km) offers an ultra-high resolution of 18 cm. “The CSO-3 (a Ukrainian Antonov An-124 cargo aircraft was used to transport the satellite to French Guiana prior to its launch on an Ariane 6 rocket in March 2025, ed.), has increased the revisit rate over Russian targets,” he says. With three active satellites, Ukrainian military intelligence can monitor a dynamic target, such as a front line, several times a day. “Then there is electromagnetic intelligence, known in military jargon as SIGINT, which represents another crucial component of France’s support for Ukraine. Paris is the only EU country to possess a sovereign, orbital space-based SIGINT capability, thanks to the Ceres system (Capacité d’écoute et de renseignement électro-magnétique spatiale),” explains Bourdillon. Through the Ceres constellation – comprising three microsatellites launched together in late 2021 and orbiting at an altitude of around 700 km – Paris enables Kyiv to precisely locate Russian air defence radars and radio command centres via triangulation. In detail: when a Russian radar or radio transmits a signal, it is intercepted by the three satellites at imperceptibly different times. By calculating the signal delay between the three satellites, the system pinpoints the geographical coordinates of the source with millimetre precision. “One might assume – and here we are entering a more classified area – that there are also French ‘advisers’. They are not on the front line, so as not to risk being killed, but they are helping the Ukrainians to manage their own electromagnetic intelligence operations and special forces.”

According to Intelligence Online, the Ukrainian Military Intelligence Directorate (GUR) has also integrated Safran.AI’s data fusion platform: a tool that enables Ukrainian analysts to automatically compile and process massive streams of French satellite imagery to instantly detect anomalies and movements of Russian armoured vehicles. In the summer, a Financial Times investigation also revealed the direct involvement of the French intelligence services, alongside their American counterparts, in Ukraine’s campaign of long-range strikes. French intelligence helps to map the deployment of Russian missile batteries (S-300, S-400) in real time and, thanks to this data, Ukrainian drone units plan precise flight corridors to bypass and saturate Russian defences, in order to strike targets hundreds of kilometres behind the front line. “Not to mention that Paris and London have authorised the sharing of classified data and technical plans to enable Kyiv to begin assembling and manufacturing the Franco-British Scalp-Eg/Storm Shadow cruise missile on its own territory,” Bourdillon emphasises. According to data from the Kiel Institute, since Russia’s invasion, France has allocated 7.9 billion euros in bilateral aid to Ukraine (78 per cent of which is military aid), ranking tenth among the largest contributors. However, if aid channelled through European mechanisms is included, Paris rises to second place. Since February 2022, it has in fact allocated an additional €19.45 billion to Ukraine, bringing its total contribution to more than €27 billion.