As the United States continues to leverage more commercial satellites for intelligence and communications work, Russia has issued a warning that these could become a “legitimate target” for wartime operations. This is according to statements made by a Russian delegation on Monday September 12 during a meeting of the United Nations Open-Ended Working Group (OEWG) on the Reduction space threatswhich is held in Geneva from September 12 to 16. The purpose of the working group meeting is to discuss how to reduce threats and increase cooperation in space through the creation and adoption of new norms and principles of responsible behavior.
Related: The war in Ukraine highlights the growing strategic importance of private satellite companies
These remarks were made by Konstantin Vorontsov, a member of the Russian Foreign Ministry and head of the Russian delegation to the United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs. In a statement delivered on Monday, September 12, Vorontsov said the Russian delegation “wishes to highlight an extremely dangerous trend that goes beyond the innocuous use of space technologies and which has become apparent during the events in Ukraine.”
Vorontsov said the uses of commercial and civilian satellites by the United States and its allies throughout the ongoing invasion of Ukraine “constitute indirect involvement in military conflicts”, whether they are aware of it or not. no, and that the so-called “quasi-civilian infrastructure could become a legitimate target of retaliation.”
“At the very least,” the statement continued, “this provocative use of civilian satellites is questionable under the Outer Space Treaty, which provides for the exclusively peaceful use of outer space, and must be strongly condemned by the international community”.
Russia’s comments on targeting commercial assets in space come after its ongoing invasion of Ukraine prompted Elon Musk’s SpaceX to send multiple starlink terminal shipments in Ukraine to boost internet coverage and connectivity following Russian attacks on critical infrastructure. In addition to Starlink, commercial satellite imagery companies such as Planet, Maxar and BlackSky provided crucial information in take photos of the conflict from above and share them openly, playing a surprisingly important role throughout the Russian invasion.
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The Russian delegation’s statement goes on to warn the United Nations against adopting “fragmented and non-inclusive rules to regulate space activities, which do not take into account the approaches of all UN member states and seek to ensure the space dominance of a small group of states.” Instead, Russia argues that UN member states should “strive to fulfill their national and international obligations not to place any weapons in space (including in Earth orbit and on celestial bodies) and to prohibit the threat or use of force against or with space objects, as well as to introduce a complete and comprehensive ban on strike weapons in outer space for use against space objects.”
Russia’s statement to the UN OEWG on space threats comes just a day after two other nations, Germany and Japan, pledged not to perform destructive anti-satellite testing (ASAT)joining a chorus of countries including the United States, Canada and New Zealand who have pledged to reduce space debris following a November 2021 Russian test that sparked widespread international condemnation.
Russia has not yet made such a promise.
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