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Russia Declares Western Satellites Supporting Ukraine Are “Legitimate Targets”
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![Photo of Vlad Litnarovych]( "Photo of Vlad Litnarovych")
Russia has formally informed international regulators that it will consider European satellites aiding Ukraine’s military as “legitimate targets,” escalating its ongoing campaign of GPS and satellite signal jamming, according to a July 16 report by Space Intel Report.
“Russia considers these countries to have forfeited the right to protest if their satellites are jammed,” Space Intel Report wrote, citing documents submitted by Russia’s Ministry of Digital Development, Communications and Mass Media to the ongoing session of the International Telecommunication Union’s (ITU) Radio Regulations Board (RRB).
While the Russian side claimed it would avoid disrupting non-military uses of satellites, it emphasized a clear intent to counter space-based systems used to support Ukrainian forces.
Russia has been accused of extensive satellite jamming since the beginning of its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
In July 2023, the ITU demanded that Moscow stop interfering with European satellite networks after complaints were jointly filed by France, the Netherlands, Sweden, Luxembourg, and Ukraine.
Those nations accused Russia of jamming GPS signals on civilian aircraft—jeopardizing flight safety—and hijacking satellite TV channels to broadcast war propaganda, including graphic scenes of violence in Ukraine.
Earlier this month, the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) urged Russia to immediately halt GPS signal disruptions over the Baltic Sea region. ICAO said the jamming posed a “serious threat” to civilian aviation across Latvia, Poland, Lithuania, Estonia, Finland, and Sweden.
Russia’s position marks a major shift in posture. It now openly refuses to address complaints over space signal interference, framing dual-use satellites as legitimate wartime infrastructure.
Moscow has hinted at this threat before. In October 2022, Russian diplomat Konstantin Vorontsov warned at the United Nations that commercial satellites used in armed conflicts could be targeted.
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“There is an extremely dangerous trend—the use by the United States and its allies of civilian space infrastructure, including commercial assets, in armed conflicts,” he said. “Quasi-civilian infrastructure may become a legitimate target for retaliatory strikes.”
Earlier, Polish scientists have traced Russia’s disruptive Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) interference over the Baltic Sea to coastal facilities in the Kaliningrad exclave and the St. Petersburg region.
