Ukraine’s Space Forces bill stalls right after first vote

A Ukrainian lawmaker says she has blocked the final vote on a bill to create Space Forces within the country’s armed forces, just hours after parliament approved it in the first reading.

Mariana Bezuhla, an independent member of the Verkhovna Rada who was elected on President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s Servant of the People party list, announced the move in a post on social media on November 9.

“I blocked the final vote on the bill to create the Space Forces. The author of the idea is MP Venislavskyi. Space Forces. For a few more generals’ posts. That’s it,” Bezuhla wrote.

Ukrainian lawmakers can hold up a bill by filing a procedural resolution challenging the vote, which parliament must deal with before the bill can move forward.

The bill, No. 13255, was introduced by a group of 33 lawmakers led by Fedir Venislavskyi of the Servant of the People party, a member of parliament’s national security and defense committee. It would set up Space Forces as a separate branch of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and calls for building Ukraine’s own early warning system for enemy missile launches, developing ways to counter such attacks and creating a national secure satellite communications network for the military and security services.

Venislavskyi told Hromadske that he would look for a way to get the bill passed and linked Bezuhla’s move to a personal conflict. He said he had earlier filed a complaint with law enforcement over possible criminal offenses by Bezuhla.

“This, let’s say, is the path of revenge she chose, which harms the national security of our state,” Venislavskyi said.

He said blocking bills meant to strengthen Ukraine’s defense does not serve national interests.

“We will find some options so that this bill is adopted in the second reading. I think we will go down this path and Ukraine will have Space Forces, which will be first and foremost a factor that deters any aggressor,” Venislavskyi said.

Bezuhla is known for frequently criticizing Ukraine’s military leadership and for using procedural tools in parliament to challenge bills she opposes.

Supporters of the Space Forces bill argue that Ukraine needs its own early warning capability. Russia regularly fires ballistic missiles at Ukrainian cities and energy facilities, and Kyiv relies largely on allied satellite data for launch warnings. Ukrainian forces also depend heavily on foreign commercial satellite services, including SpaceX’s Starlink, for communications on the front line.

Ukraine has worked on space and launch technology during the war, and Ukraine confirmed rocket launches into space during wartime. In 2024, parliament created the Unmanned Systems Forces as a separate branch of the armed forces to expand drone warfare.

The bill now needs a second-reading vote and the president’s signature to become law.