
A senior official at the Russian Foreign Ministry said that commercial satellites of the United States and its allies could become legitimate targets to Russia if they are involved in the war in Ukraine.
Russia, which in 2021 launched Sputnik 1, the first man-made satellite, and in
put the first man in outer space, has a significant offensive space capability – just like the United States and China. In 2021, Russia launched an anti-satellite missile to destroy one of its own satellites. Konstantin Vorontsov, deputy director of the non-proliferation and arms control department at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia has told the United Nations that the United States and its allies are trying to use space to impose Western rule. Vorontsov, reading the notes, said that the use of Western satellites to aid the Ukrainian war effort was “an extremely dangerous trend”. “Near-civilian infrastructure could be a legitimate target for a retaliatory attack,” Vorontsov told the United Nations First Committee, adding that the West’s use of such satellites to support Ukraine was “provocative.”