Mereja Forum

[Abe Abraham]

From my French source :

• Ukraine: an official of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs describes as "legitimate targets" the satellites used to support the Ukrainian army.
  
  
  
  Vladimir Yermakov, director of the non-proliferation and arms control department of the Russian Foreign Ministry, said in an interview with RIA Novosti that the "quasi-civilian satellites" used by the West to support the operations of the Ukrainian army could become "legitimate targets" for Russia.
  
  "We confirm that this quasi-civilian infrastructure, if used in military operations against Russia, could very logically become a legitimate target for retaliation," Yermakov said. According to him, such use of civilian satellites "at least raises questions in the context of the Outer Space Treaty, which implies its exclusively peaceful use, and requires the most serious condemnation of the world community."
  
  Yermakov noted that a constellation of low-orbiting satellites is mainly used to support the Ukrainian Army (AFU). "It is used to perform specific pure combat tasks to discover the locations, movement routes and actions of Russian troops, to pilot strike drones, as well as to target high-precision munitions from space." , said the Russian diplomat.
  
  Further, he pointed out that given the global coverage of Earth's territory by civilian spacecraft, "the Pentagon is testing the concept of a forward-looking troop control system anywhere in the world, the overwhelming majority of states do not having no effective means of countering it."
  
  "We support preventing the use of civilian commercial satellites for combat missions," Yermakov said.
  
  This is not the first time such statements have been made by Russian diplomats. On October 26, Konstantin Vorontsov, deputy head of the non-proliferation and arms control department of the Russian Foreign Ministry, speaking at a meeting of the first committee of the United Nations General Assembly, said that commercial satellites of the United States and its allies could become legitimate targets for a Russian retaliatory strike if used in combat operations in Ukraine. “Separately, we would like to highlight an extremely dangerous and not innocuous use of space technology which has clearly become apparent during the events in Ukraine. We are talking about the use by the United States and its allies of elements of civil infrastructure in space, including commercial elements, for military purposes. These States are clearly not fully aware that these activities constitute, in fact, indirect participation in armed conflict. Quasi-civilian infrastructure could be a "legitimate target" for reprisals. Due to Western actions, the sustainability of peaceful space activities as well as many socio-economic processes on earth on which human well-being depends, mainly in developing countries, are unnecessarily threatened. At the very least, this provocative use of civilian satellites raises questions in the context of the Outer Space Treaty,