Russia Threatens To Shut Down US Commercial Satellites Over Involvement In Ukraine

Russia has threatened to target commercial satellites from the United States and its allies if they were involved in the war in Ukraine, The Jerusalem Post reports.

According to JPost, Konstantin Vorontsov, a senior Russian foreign ministry official, said that commercial satellites from the US would become legitimate targets for Russia over the West’s assistance to Ukraine.

Last year, Russia launched an anti-satellite missile to destroy one of its own satellites to test its offensive space capability.

Vorontsov told the United Nations that the United States and its allies were trying to use space to enforce Western dominance, and said the use of Western satellites to aid the Ukrainian war effort was “an extremely dangerous trend.”

“Quasi-civilian infrastructure may be a legitimate target for a retaliatory strike,” Vorontsov told the United Nations First Committee, adding that the West’s use of such satellites to support 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 said, according to JPost.

The Russian official did not mention any specific satellite companies though Elon Musk said earlier this month that his rocket company SpaceX would continue to fund its Starlink internet service in Ukraine.