Vladimir Putin’s mouthpiece and a senior foreign ministry official warned that Russia would target commercial satellites from the U.S. and its allies if they were involved in the war in Ukraine.
What Happened: The Deputy Director of the Russian Foreign Ministry's Department for Non-Proliferation and Arms Control, Konstantin Vorontsov, told the United Nations First Committee that the U.S. and its allies were trying to use space to enforce Western dominance.
Vorontsov said the use of Western satellites to aid Kyiv’s war effort was "an extremely dangerous trend."
"Quasi-civilian infrastructure may be a legitimate target for a retaliatory strike," he said, adding that this support for Ukraine was "provocative."
"We are talking about the involvement of components of civilian space infrastructure, including commercial, by the United States and its allies in armed conflicts," Vorontsov added.
Russia, which launched its first manmade satellite in 1957, Sputnik 1, into space, has a significant offensive space capability to destroy other satellites, as do the US and China. In 2021, Moscow also launched an anti-satellite missile to destroy one of its own satellites.
Why It Matters: Although Vorontsov did not mention the name of any particular satellite, this comes days after Tesla Inc. TSLA CEO Elon Musk said his company SpaceX would continue to fund its Starlink internet service in Ukraine for free, citing the need for "good deeds."
Meanwhile, Musk had previously shared that Starlink faced “relentless jamming” and blamed Russia for trying to hack into the system.
“Starlink has faced relentless jamming attacks & SpaceX relentless cyberwar. So far, their success has been limited,” Musk said.
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