Russia urges USA not to engage in space arms race to avoid consequences

Konstantin Vorontsov, Deputy Director of the Department for Nonproliferation and Arms Control of the Russian Foreign Ministry, warned the United States about the consequences that may follow should USA use satellites in Ukraine.

Speaking at a meeting of the First Committee of the UN General Assembly, Konstantin Vorontsov said that in this case commercial satellites could become a legitimate target for an attack.

"Separately, we would like to highlight an extremely dangerous trend that has clearly manifested itself in the course of events in Ukraine. It goes about the efforts of the United States and its allies to use elements of civil infrastructure in space, including commercial ones, in armed conflicts. The quasi-civilian infrastructure could be a legitimate target for retaliation," Konstantin Vorontsov, Deputy Director of the Department for Nonproliferation and Arms Control of the Russian Foreign Ministry said, TASS reports.

Russia urges the West not to position space as an arena of state conflicts, Vorontsov said.

The intentions of Western countries, led by the United States, to deploy weapons in space and use outer space to conduct combat operations and demonstrate superiority pose a serious threat, Konstantin Vorontsov said.

"Such actions have the most negative impact on international peace and security. They are fraught with a sharp destabilization of the situation and an arms race in outer space, which would completely undermine the prospects for limiting and reducing arms as a whole," the diplomat said.

The actions of the West endanger peaceful activities in space, as well as numerous processes on earth, on which the well-being of people depends, Vorontsov stressed.

Earlier it became known that the US Department of Defense successfully tested components of hypersonic weapons. As part of the event, the US tested navigational equipment as well as advanced materials that are resistant to heat in a realistic hypersonic environment.

It is still possible to avoid a space arms race, Konstantin Vorontsov said.

The Russian diplomat called on the UN countries to reaffirm their commitment to the current agreements on the regulation of space activities.

It is worthy of note that in April 2022, the United States imposed a moratorium on testing anti-satellite weapons. According to US Vice President Kamala Harris, the American authorities thus wanted to write new rules and establish norms for working in space.

Sergei Ryabkov, Deputy Foreign Minister of Russia, later said that Washington made the right decision. At the same time, he wondered whether the USA was intended to cease the development of anti-satellite systems.