Russia could send a nuclear or simulated warhead into space as soon as this year.
According to sources, Russia is developing space-based capabilities to destroy satellites using nuclear weapons.
The deployment of nuclear warheads in Earth orbit would violate Russia's 1967 international Outer Space Treaty.
This follows last week's warning by the chairman of the Intelligence Committee of the US House of Representatives that there is a serious but unspecified security threat to Russia. Biden then said that the Kremlin had been developing an anti-satellite space that would not pose a direct threat to human life.
In response to the news, a White House spokesman declined to comment.
When meeting with Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu on the 20th, Putin pointed out that Russia has always resolutely opposed the deployment of nuclear weapons in space, and Russia only does what other countries do in the field of space, and he also called on other countries to abide by all existing agreements. For his part, Shoigu said that Russia has not deployed nuclear weapons in space, and there are no relevant plans, and the United States is very clear about this.
The current assessment is that Russia does not intend to detonate any orbit**. However, they say there is a risk of an accident where a nuclear explosion could affect about a third of satellites and wreak havoc on communications systems on Earth.
An expert familiar with space ** said that the impact of any ** will depend on the size of the warhead. While the impact does not mean the destruction of the satellite, it may mean interference that requires error correction.
As of April last year, there were nearly 7,800 satellites in orbit around the Earth, according to the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs.