A senior Russian official on Wednesday denied US claims that Moscow had launched a weapon into low Earth orbit that could potentially attack other satellites, calling it “fake news.”
Pentagon press secretary Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder said a day earlier that last week the Kremlin launched a satellite assessed as “probably an antispace weapon, presumably capable of attacking other satellites in low Earth orbit.”
Ryder said the new anti-space weapon was “in the same orbit as a US government satellite”, adding that Washington would continue to monitor the situation.
Asked whether the Kremlin weapon currently poses a threat to the US government satellite, he replied: “Yes.”
U.S. Space Command also said Tuesday that the Russian launch took place on May 16 from the country’s launch site in Plesetsk, about 500 miles (800 kilometers) north of Moscow. The command added that the rocket deployed at least nine satellites, including a kind of military “inspector” spacecraft.
The Russian Defense Ministry acknowledged that a launch took place and included a spacecraft, but did not offer further details.
“I don’t think we should respond to any fake news coming from Washington,” Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov, the country’s top diplomat responsible for arms control, told state news agency Interfax.reported by Reuters.
“Americans can say whatever they want, but our policy does not change from that,” Ryabkov added, noting that Moscow “has always consistently opposed the deployment of strike weapons in low Earth orbit.”
The denial follows similar Russian claims in February, when the US alleged that Moscow was developing a space-based anti-satellite nuclear weapon to destroy Western satellites. Russian President Vladimir Putin and then-Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu denied the allegation.
U.S. intelligence revealed the possibility of such a space weapon after House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Turner (R-Ohio) cryptically announced that Congress had information about a “serious threat to national security.”
Within the United Nations Security Council, an agreement known as the Outer Space Treaty of 1967 aims to prevent the deployment of nuclear weapons in outer space. But last month Russia vetoed a resolution calling for a reaffirmation of commitment to the treaty.
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