Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova warned on March 19 that the United States is seeking to establish “absolution and unquestionable U.S. dominance in outer space” with the intent of securing global military dominance. She urged the international community to mobilize to protect outer space as an area of peace available to all humanity, before this U.S. policy leads “to an arms race in outer space as well as to undermining the global security and strategic stability.”
Zakharova cited several of Secretary of War Pete Hegseth’s militaristic ravings made during his “Arsenal of Freedom” tour of the U.S. defense companies, in which he declared outer space to be “the single most decisive battlefield of this century and centuries to come … the fight for the future of the world…. [W]hoever controls the high ground controls the fight.” At the same time, she noted, “the possibility of `orbital equity’ or `parity’ of states is categorically rejected.”
These statements of intent “confirm our concerns regarding the rapidly deteriorating situation in the field of space security and the increasing risk of outer space being transformed into an arena of an armed confrontation,” she added. “One can see Washington’s determination to promptly implement dangerous doctrinal principles. Space supremacy is regarded by the U.S. as a guarantee of achieving advantage in any conflict against any potential enemy. The U.S. plans to deploy weapon systems in outer space begin to take on real shapes.”
