GUYSBOROUGH – The Yuzhmash Aerospace Plant in Dnipro, Ukraine was attacked by Russian missiles on July 15. The BBC reported that three people died in the attack. That same day, Global News posted eyewitness accounts of the attack on Dnipro on YouTube. A segment of the video included a Dnipro resident who stated that there’d been a missile strike near Yuzhmash. She went on to say that she’d seen a video of the facility on fire with explosions.
Yuzhmash, a rocket manufacturer, has been partnering with Maritime Launch Services (MLS) — the proponent of the first commercial spaceport in Canada, to be located near Canso — since MLS first put forward its business plan for the spaceport in 2016.
In the months since Russia invaded the Ukraine, MLS has told The Journal on several occasions that the company continues to work with their partners at Yuzhmash. MLS CEO Steve Matier told The Journal in May, “We’re standing by our partners in Ukraine. The team in Ukraine is working daily on helping us with some of the launch site design, power studies, etc. They’re working on the first stage as we speak.”
News of the attack on the Yuzhmash facility this weekend was received with heavy hearts by MLS employees. Matier sent the following comment about the incident to The Journal via email: “We are extremely saddened by the Russian missile strikes in Dnipro, Ukraine including the Yuzhmash facility. Our immediate focus and thoughts are with our colleagues and friends from the Yuzhmash facility, as well as the residents of Dnipro, and indeed all of Ukraine. Russia’s unrelenting and unprovoked attacks continue to take the lives of innocent Ukrainians. Maritime Launch Services condemns, in the strongest possible terms, these attacks on the peace and freedoms of Ukrainian citizens.”
In a Facebook post on July 15, Dnipro Mayor Borys Filatov wrote of his appreciation to all the workers who had gotten power, water and gas lines back up and running less than a day after the attack.
No further information on the state of the Yuzhmash facility or causalities of the attack was available by The Journal’s print deadline.
