Hybrid warfare is not limited to ground and cyber combat. It could also take place in space. On Thursday, Konstantin Vorontsov, a senior Russian Foreign Ministry official, issued a threat against Western satellites used to provide communications or intelligence to the Ukrainians.
For this high official, this aid is a provocation and he believes that if these infrastructures are “civilian”, “they could constitute a legitimate target for retaliatory attacks”.
This threat provoked a reaction from Washington. National Security Council spokesman John Kirby promises Russia an “appropriate” response to any Russian attack on US commercial satellites.
Starlink targeted?
Konstantin Vorontsov did not cite any company in particular, neither Starlink (SpaceX), nor the space imaging companies used, among others, by UNESCO to monitor the destruction of property and cultural heritage. But Starlink would be the main target. For several months, Elon Musk, head of SpaceX, feared a Russian attack on the constellations of 20,000 Starlink satellites sent to Ukraine to guarantee communications.
SpaceX’s help had arrived in Kyiv after a Russian cyberattack on February 24 against the KA-SAT satellite network, operated by Viasat an hour earlier. his offensive against Ukraine. This space offensive was condemned on May 10 by the European Union.
This space offensive had caused interruptions in communications that affected the entire country, public services, companies and users in Ukraine. It also affected the EU Member States.
russian cyber attacks
If this cyberattack was the first, it is not the first time Russia has demonstrated its ability to wage war in space. In November 2021, just a year ago, Russia fired a missile at Tselina-D, a satellite in orbit since 1982 and dormant for years. The explosion had caused a cloud of debris that could have hit the ISS orbital station or one of the civilian or military satellites in orbit.
Another operation, this time espionage, was carried out in 2017 by Russia against Athena-Fidus, a Franco-Italian satellite specialized in secure military communications. Moscow had sent the spy satellite Louch-Olympus in an attempt to intercept communications.
Source: BFM TV
