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Ukraine Used Prized ATACMS Missiles To Strike Unique Cold War-Era Space Communications Station

I am still trying to figure out why UKF destroyed a Russian deep space tracking & communications site.

Here's another x.com post by Chuck Pfarrer that states that the facility was recently upgraded.

UPLINK DESTROYED: A UKR strike targeted NIP-16, a Russian deep space tracking & communications site 70km northwest of Sevastopol in occupied Crimea. The recently upgraded facility at Vitino was hit by several missiles on the night of 23-24 JUN.

https://x.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/1805715647629758933

Although I have no proof, I still believe the site was upgraded to aid in locating UKF high value assets such as F-16s and Patriot batteries.

🇰🇵 🇺🇸 "North Korea expects to receive long-range nuclear missile technology from Russia in exchange for the supply of artillery shells", - US Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell.

🇨🇳 China fears that such cooperation could lead to war in Northeast Asia.

https://x.com/Maks_NAFO_FELLA/status/1805849084613247053

Obviously, 🇰🇷 South Korea and 🇺🇸 U.S. are also concerned.

From the article:

“As of 2017, reports stated the center had received 10 new systems and the upgrading was still proceeding,” the publication continued. “The initial plan was to spend 1.8 billion rubles on the reconstruction of one radio telescope alone: at the exchange rate of that time, cost about $28 million.”
It is now being “used by Russia for ballistic missile early warning looking towards the Middle East, Africa and Southwest Asia,” the Kyiv Post reported.
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However, Fabian Rene Hoffmann, a Doctoral Research Fellow at the University of Oslo, suggested a different use. “I haven’t found anything that indicates that it would serve as a downlink for space-based early-warning satellites, so I assume it plays no role in ballistic missile defense,” he told The War Zone on Monday.
Instead, he suggested that “a plausible explanation appears to be that the site is used for maintaining and controlling Russian satellites, including GLONASS [GLObalnaya NAvigatsionnaya Sputnikovaya Sistema in Russian] satellites,” the Russian version of the U.S. Global Positioning System (GPS).

Taking out the Russian GLONASS navigation system is a fair target and hurts Russia's more modern military systems. System was upgraded in 2017.