Russia and China have recently been accused of secretly monitoring satellites of Germany and Britain. The Western Powers have claimed that Moscow and Beijing have not only accessed their sensitive information by doing so, but also affected civil aviation in Europe.

Germany and Britain have strongly criticised Russia for “following” their satellites in space, stressing that they realised it after their satellites were repeatedly jammed in the past few weeks. Moreover, the Russian satellites often move into the same orbit with their satellites. Speaking at a space conference in Berlin in September 2025, German Defence Minister Boris Ludwig Pistorius stressed: “Russian activities in space are a threat to us all, a threat that can no longer be ignored.” He also underscored the need for talks on developing offensive capabilities in space as a deterrent, pointing to Russia’s use of two of its Luch-Olymp satellites to track Intelsat satellites.

The Western countries fear that Russia could target their communications satellites and also attack them, thus affecting satellite imagery or telecom, as well as broadband, satellite internet services. According to the RAND Corporation (a global nonprofit policy think-tank focused on improving policy and decision-making through research and analysis), such a move could disrupt military navigation and positioning systems, apart from impacting air traffic.

Meanwhile, Kiev has claimed that Russia strengthened ties with China in the third year of the Russia-Ukraine War (in 2024). Hence, China has started providing Russia with satellite intelligence for military purposes, including data used to plan missile strikes on Ukrainian territory and monitor nuclear power stations. According to the Foreign Intelligence Agency of Ukraine, these allegations are based on evidence of high-level cooperation between Moscow and Beijing in satellite reconnaissance.

It may be noted that the German Defence Minister, too, claimed in September 2025 that two Russian reconnaissance satellites, identified as Luch-Olymp, were tracked closely following and observing two Intelsat satellites which are normally operated by the German Armed Forces and their allies. Pistorius reportedly said: “Russia and China have expanded their capabilities for warfare in space rapidly over the past years: They can disrupt satellite operations, blind satellites, manipulate or kinetically destroy them.” Berlin has significantly increased its investment in domestic space defence by allocating EUR 35 billion (approximately USD 41 billion) by 2030 to counter the growing threat from Russia and China.

The head of Britain’s Space Command has warned that the Russian satellites are monitoring the British satellites on a regular basis. In September 2025, British Major General Paul Tedman told the BBC: “They have got payloads on board that can see our satellites and are trying to collect information from them. We are seeing our satellites being jammed by the Russians on a reasonably persistent basis.” According to NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, Russia plans to develop nuclear weapons in space to disable and destroy foreign satellites.

As expected, Russian President Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin has dismissed all these allegations, stating that his country has no intention of deploying nuclear weapons in space, claiming that Moscow has only developed space capabilities similar to those of the US. In fact, Russia vetoed a UN Security Council resolution that called for member states to not develop space-based nuclear weapons in 2024, while China abstained from voting.

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Published by Koushik Das

Koushik Das (born on May 16, 1976 in Kolkata) is a career journalist. Based in the Indian capital of New Delhi, Koushik writes mainly about foreign policies and current geopolitical issues, and rarely about other topics. His own political ideas are highly influenced by Antonio Gramsci, Louis Althusser, Michel Foucault, Michael Oakeshott and others. English philosopher and political theorist Oakeshott (Dec 11, 1901-Dec 19, 1990) says that “in political activity, men sail a boundless and bottomless sea. There is neither harbour for shelter nor floor for anchorage, neither starting-place, nor appointed destination. But we have to keep afloat”. (Rationalism in Politics, 1962) As a student of Political Science, Koushik loves to share his views on issues, which have great impacts on his thought process (and also on India, South Asia and of course on the global community), with his readers through his website – Boundless Ocean of Politics. By doing so, he tries to keep himself afloat. You will find some of his articles in https://inserbia.info/today/ (https://inserbia.info/today/author/kou_das13_i/), as he has been trying to assess the global geopolitics since 2003. You can also mail him at kousdas@gmail.com View all posts by Koushik Das