The German tabloid BILD has obtained secret audio recordings of the former head of the Russian space agency Roscosmos, Dmitry Rogozin, in which he talks about the possibility of launching a Soyuz rocket to strike Kyiv are discussed.

According to BILD, a group of high-ranking Russian officials and scientists were planning a terrorist attack on Ukraine to impress Putin. They considered modifying a civilian-type Soyuz carrier rocket so that it does not go to the Earth’s orbit upon launch, but instead crashes into a major city in Ukraine (likely Kyiv), causing a large amount of radioactive waste and explosion.

BILD claims to have more than seven minutes of recorded conversations between Dmitry Rogozin, and the current head of Roscosmos' subsidiary, "Progress Rocket Space Center," Dmitry Baranov.

Progress manufactures carrier rockets used to launch manned and cargo spacecraft to the International Space Station.

The recorded conversations available to BILD began in early January 2023.

Rogozin and Baranov discuss the possibility of launching a rocket towards Ukraine "from the north, rather than the east," meaning from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome near Arkhangelsk in Russia, rather than from the Vostochny Cosmodrome on the China border.

This would allow to carry more explosive weight towards Ukraine. Baranov explains, "From the east, it would be 7.5 tons, from the north — 10 tons. Well, one ton can be removed for safety, so it becomes 6.5 and 9 tons."

In the conversation, Baranov confirms the location of the launch site and explains that a 50-meter rocket can be sent anywhere, "in any direction, just in any direction that we want."
However, he sees another problem: Russia does not have bombs which  can withstand the high temperatures upon re-entry into the atmosphere:
"This is a supersonic entry into the atmosphere, and the existing heavy aircraft bombs, such as the 'FAB-500,' do not work, as the TNT inside them disintegrates due to overheating, resulting in a critically reduced efficiency. Our guided bombs are also not designed for this, and they have no protection against overheating."

During the planned re-entry into the atmosphere, the Russian rocket has a speed of six kilometers per second, according to him. Dmitry Rogozin says he wants to quickly find a solution to this issue and says he would ask Yuri Solomonov about it. Solomonov was the chief designer of ground-based missile systems at the Moscow State Institute of Thermal Engineering and headed a group of developers for the intercontinental missile Topol-M in the 1990s.

Another issue that Rogozin and Baranov note is the risk that parts of the rocket may fall on Russian territory en route to Ukraine. "How extensive are the crash zones? Where do we have risks?" former head of Roscosmos asks.
Rogozin is also concerned about the fact that the converted Russian carrier rocket, turned into a mega-bomb, will hit Ukraine "somewhere within a radius of 50-100 kilometers" from the Russian border. He asks Baranov to conduct further calculations to determine the exact location of strike on Ukrainian territory.

"How much time will it take to prepare all this?" asks Rogozin, adding that Putin got interested in the project.
In an audio message, Rogozin reports to Baranov: "I spoke with Vayno (Chief of Staff of the Russian Presidential Executive Office), told him about this big project that could come from the Arkhangelsk region. In principle, he was very interested. He asked me to submit a document on Monday, which he will present to his boss."
According to BILD, Vladimir Putin was informed on January 16, 2023, about the plans of his rocket specialists to launch a modified Soyuz rocket towards a major Ukrainian city.

  War in Ukraine, Roskosmos, Rogozin

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