Putin’s chilling threat to blitz West’s satellites to cripple power grids & phones after Russia hit with nuke hoaxes
RUSSIA has threatened to attack the West's satellites in what would be a massive escalation of its war in Ukraine.
Vladimir Putin's foreign ministry made the chilling threat as it accused unnamed forces of attacking their own orbital platforms.
Destroying satellites could have wide ranging consequences such as disruption to communications systems, power grids, banking systems and more.
Military chiefs have previously warned it would no longer be "life as we know it" if war in space disrupted the world's satellite network.
Russia's foreign ministry claimed Ukraine has been disrupting their satellites with help from "specialists from a number of foreign states";.
"This is an outrageous violation of international law,” said the ministry.
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“The Russian side has the right to respond appropriately.”
It warned: “All necessary possibilities for this are available."
The ministry did not give specific examples.
Russia has already accused the West of using its civilian space infrastructure to support the operations of the Ukrainian troops, including for combat strikes, for example detecting the locations of Vladimir Putin’s army and its movements.
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Putin's country has also been under siege with a series of a hack attacks of TV and radio feeds, which often end with emergency warnings of nuclear war being broadcast to millions.
The impact is seen as causing psychological trauma among the population and leading to a questioning of Putin’s war against Ukraine.
In such cases, Russian officials have blamed the hacking on unknown groups.
It is not known if Moscow is also concerned about other breaches of its satellites.
The ministry did not specify how Russia might respond in any attack on Western satellites.
Satellites are crucial to telecommunications and the global positioning system (GPS), as well as weather forecasting and disaster relief.
Smartphones and the internet could be disrupted by attacks on the complex network of satellites linked to Western economies.
And back in 2021, Russia destroyed one of its own satellites in orbit using a new type of missile.
Lt Gen Nina Armagno, staff director of the US Space Force, last year laid out the danger of attacks on satellites.
"Life as we know it would no longer be as we know it," she warned.
"I don’t want to be dramatic. What does war in space look like? We probably won’t see it with our naked eye but we will definitely feel the consequences from the moment it begins."
Admiral Sir Tony Radakin also laid out the danger of space weapons last September.
"[Russia] has capabilities in space. We saw an example of that at the tail end of last year, when Russia exploded an object in space which created immense debris," said Sir Tony.
Meanwhile, Russia has increased its own cyber warfare and spy in the sky capability by boosting its military satellite capability during the war against Ukraine.
Footage last week showed a Soyuz-2.1v launch from Plesetsk Cosmodrome in northern Arkhangelsk region - the latest in a succession of Defence Ministry payloads sent into orbit.
Vlad hasn't made the gains he or his commanders expected and Russia has found itself bogged down a long, brutal war as humiliating defeats pile up.
The tyrant now seemingly has his future tied to his success or failure in Ukraine.
Putin foolishly believed his forces would be welcomed into Ukraine as liberators when he invaded last February.
But instead the initial attack ended in a disaster which saw his forces devastated and thrown back to Russia.
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Kyiv continues to call for Western support to help them defeat Putin.
The world is now awaiting to see if Ukraine will mount its long expected counter offensive, with much of the fiercest fighting currently centred around the city of Bakhmut.
