The company that actually assembles Russia's homegrown answer to Starlink has been left off every Western sanctions list, a US research group and a Ukrainian anti-corruption watchdog separately told Euromaidan Press this month.

Both landed on the same gap—the manufacturer, Bureau 1440, and its leaders remain untouched by the West, even though Kyiv has already placed the firm on Ukraine's own sanctions list. They differ on how much a Western designation would achieve, not on where the opening is.

The company no Western government has sanctioned

Rassvet is Russia's low-Earth-orbit satellite constellation, built by the private firm Bureau 1440 to give Moscow's troops communications independent of SpaceX. Bureau 1440 launched its first 16 satellites in March 2026, building the network after SpaceX cut off the Russian units' unauthorized Starlink access. C4ADS, a US-based research organization, confirmed to Euromaidan Press that Bureau 1440 and its leadership sit outside every Western sanctions regime, and called designating the manufacturer the single most visible and effective step available.

Viktoriia Vyshnivska, a senior analyst at the Independent Anti-Corruption Commission (NAKO), a Ukrainian watchdog, was more measured. "We shouldn't expect a magical effect," she said, but sanctions would make the Western boards and components Bureau 1440 depends on harder and costlier to source. Many of those goods are already banned under EU export controls, she noted—yet the manufacturer itself remains off the lists.

The EU named the network but not the firm

The EU has already moved once. Its 21st sanctions package, adopted on 23 July, targeted the Rassvet network but stopped short of the manufacturer, leaving Bureau 1440 and its chief executive off the lists. On 28 August, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said Kyiv had sent a formal note to the UN's telecom agency requesting that Ukraine be excluded from Rassvet's coverage. Days later, he urged EU ministers to sanction the project. Ukraine gave partners a list of nine entities tied to it, Militarnyi reported, citing sources.

For years Ukraine could find, jam, or knock out the communication links Russian forces leaned on. Rassvet may be the first it cannot. Vyshnivska put the useful window to slow it at about a year. Russia, by Ukrainian calculations, needs five to eight years to see it through.

Euromaidan Press examined how Russia built Rassvet, and how far it still has to go.

Ukraine's military intelligence agency, HUR, published data on 54 Russian enterprises within KRET, a defense holding under Russia's state-owned Rostec corporation, on 15 September. More than a third of KRET's enterprises face no sanctions from any country in the international sanctions coalition, HUR reported on 15 September.

Russia's defense industry is vast, and sanctions have targeted companies and individuals across the sector in multiple rounds since the full-scale invasion to restrict its ability to produce and finance weapons. But complex networks of state-owned holdings and subsidiaries can leave gaps, allowing some companies involved in military production to remain outside international sanctions. An August report by the anti-corruption organization NAKO found that the EU had sanctioned only 23% of 482 Rostec-linked entities.

What KRET makes for Russia's military

• KRET makes electronic warfare systems, friend-or-foe identification systems and onboard electronics for Russian fighter jets and helicopters, HUR said. Its companies also make other military equipment, including anti-drone systems and remotely operated machine guns.
• KRET also supports Russia’s missile production. The Signal plant in Stavropol makes compact jamming stations for 9M723 Iskander-M missiles, and the Kaluga Research Radio Engineering Institute makes electronic protection systems for 3M22 Zircon missiles.
• KRET’s main organization covers funding shortfalls for state defense contracts carried out by its companies, according to HUR.

Unsanctioned companies make missile and drone parts

HUR also named several of the 19 unsanctioned companies that it says are involved in Russian weapons production. 

Among those firms, HUR identified manufacturers of navigation systems for Kh-59M2 and Kh-59M2A guided air-launched missiles and Orion drones, gyroscopes for 9M727 cruise missiles used in the Iskander system, and electric motors for drones.

The enterprises include JSC Inertial Technologies of Technokompleks, JSC Tambov Plant Elektropribor, and JSC Ulan-Ude Instrument-Making Production Association.

HUR calls for broader sanctions

The intelligence agency called for more defense companies to be added to international sanctions lists, better monitoring of compliance, and punishment for violations. KRET is the 10th Rostec holding whose enterprises HUR has published on its War&Sanctions portal. The portal now lists 764 Rostec enterprises, UNN reported.

On 8 September, HUR published data on 155 enterprises belonging to Roselektronika, another Rostec holding. Nearly half were not under international sanctions.