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From roughly 450 kilometers above Earth, Jannicke Mikkelsen was looking through the window of her spacecraft when she noticed something moving between her and the Earth below. She saw a fireball, a meteor maybe? But it behaved differently.

Aug 15, 2026 21:38

6 min read

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Amira Barkhush

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“I think orange means it’s man-made. Where are we?” Mikkelsen checks where the spacecraft was passing, “I see what’s happened. It’s traveled from Russia. It’s landed in Ukraine. I’m pretty sure that’s a missile attack. I just went silent.”

Seeing the Russian attack from space

On the evening of April 2, 2025, Russia launched a ballistic missile attack on Ukraine’s Kryvyi Rih, striking a civilian infrastructure facility, where people were still working. That attack killed 4 people and injured 17.<br>“I sat on top of a rocket. I sat on top of a rocket to get to space. But I’m looking at the same kind of rocket also being launched, but it’s being launched to kill people in Ukraine,” Mikkelsen said in an interview with UNITED24 Media while visiting Ukraine.<br>Jannicke Mikkelsen is a Norwegian astronaut, film director, and cinematographer specializing in extreme-environment filming. In 2025, she served as vehicle commander aboard Fram2. Launched on March 31, 2025, the mission became the first crewed spaceflight to travel in a true polar orbit over Earth’s north and south poles.

Norwegian astronaut Jannicke Mikkelsen visits the site that was hit by a Russian ballistic missile on April 2, 2025, Kryvyi Rih, Ukraine, August 2026. Photo by Mykyta Shandyba/UNITED24 Media

Visiting the strike site

Using OSINT techniques, cross-checking dates, and consulting experts, Mikkelsen identified the site hit by the missile. To fully understand what she had witnessed from space, she knew she had to see where it landed.<br>More than a year later, Mikkelsen traveled to Ukraine with the Norwegian NGO Fritt Ukraina, which has provided aid to the country since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion.<br>“I wanted to see where the missile struck. What the missile was. Whom the missile affected,” she said.<br>In Kryvyi Rih, an industrial city in central Ukraine, facility staff walked Mikkelsen through the site. A car wash once stood here. Two women were killed there. Nearby, two men were killed as they were leaving work.

The facility staff shows Jannicke Mikkelsen the buildings where civilians were working at the time of the April 2, 2025 strike, Kryvyi Rih, Ukraine, August 2026. Photo by Mykyta Shandyba/UNITED24 Media

Jannicke Mikkelsen and other members of her team and Fritt Ukraina stand near a building that was destroyed by one of Russia’s attacks on the facility, Kryvyi Rih, Ukraine, August 2026. Photo by Mykyta Shandyba/UNITED24 Media

What Mikkelsen had witnessed from hundreds of kilometers above Earth as a distant flash was now a place she could walk through, with names, lives, and stories attached to it.<br>That attack was not an isolated incident. Just two days later, on April 4, another Russian ballistic missile struck Kryvyi Rih in broad daylight, hitting a residential area near a children’s playground. Twenty people were ultimately killed, including nine children.<br>During her visit, Mikkelsen laid flowers at the site of the April 4 strike and spoke with a resident whose home was damaged in the attack.

Mariia Cherviachenko, Director of the Kryvyi Rih City Development Institute and a resident of a building affected by the Russian attack stands in front of the playground, where nine children were killed on April 4, 2025, Kryvyi Rih, Ukraine, August 2026. Photo by Mykyta Shandyba/UNITED24 Media

Jannicke Mikkelsen lays flowers in remembrance of all the victims who died following Russia’s ballistic missile attack on April 4, 2025, Kryvyi Rih, Ukraine, August 2026. Photo by Mykyta Shandyba/UNITED24 Media

“Everything at one point was just ruined,” said Mariia Cherviachenko, Director of the Kryvyi Rih City Development Institute and a resident of a building affected by the Russian attack. “My husband and I came back to rebuild what we had built together over 15 years.”<br>Together with Fritt Ukraina, Mikkelsen also delivered aid to the Ukrainian military, including five vehicles, one of them a van for an air defense unit, as well as portable power stations, individual first-aid kits, 400 tourniquets, and flame-resistant uniforms.

Jannicke Mikkelsen is listening to the story of Russia’s ballistic missile attack on April 4, 2025, Kryvyi Rih, Ukraine, August 2026. Photo by Mykyta Shandyba/UNITED24 Media

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