France warns of growing "hostile activity" in space, including from Russia

"Hostile and unfriendly" activity in space has intensified, especially on the part of Russia. This was stated by the head of the French Space Command, Major General Vincent Chussot, to Reuters.

According to him, after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, there has been a significant surge in hostile activity in space. Russia and other countries are using various methods to disrupt the operation of satellites, and jamming, lasers and cyberattacks have become "commonplace.".

Russia's war against Ukraine has shown that "space is now a full-fledged operational domain," Schusseau said.

In 2018, France already accused Russia of trying to spy on its secret communications. However, since then, there have been no allegations of suspicious maneuvers.

"Every day shows dizzying progress – launching more and more satellites for new constellations, developing methods of operation that go beyond what we've seen before," said Schusso .

He emphasized that France's priorities are to increase the resilience of space objects, accelerate the ability to perform "a wide range of actions in space... not only to see and understand, but also to act.".

According to the French Space Command, the country will create a series of demonstration satellites for in-orbit patrol and enemy monitoring. The goal is also to acquire surface-to-space capabilities to "deter, block and disrupt" enemy actions.

• In April, it was reported that China, together with Russia, plans to build a nuclear power plant on the Moon by 2035.
• On May 2, it became known that the United States began to share top-secret data on Russian and Chinese space operations with its allies.