WASHINGTON, United States: Russia is developing an anti-satellite weapon that worries the United States but poses no direct threat to people on Earth, the White House said Thursday.
The United States is now reaching out to Moscow over the weapon, whose existence was confirmed after lawmakers warned of an unspecified but serious threat to national security, she added.
Moscow has denied the “malicious” and “baseless” claims, calling them a White House ploy to pass a multibillion-dollar Ukrainian war aid package that has stalled in Congress.
“I can confirm that this is related to an anti-satellite capability that Russia has developed,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters at a White House briefing.
“This is not an active capability that has been deployed. And while the Russian push for this particular capability is troubling, there is no immediate threat to anyone’s security,” he said.
“We are not talking about a weapon that can be used to attack human beings or to cause physical destruction here on Earth.”
Nevertheless, the United States “has been closely monitoring this Russian activity and we will continue to take it very seriously.”
US President Joe Biden has ordered officials to open “direct diplomatic negotiations” with Russia about the weapon, but there has been no contact with Moscow so far, Kirby said.
Kirby would not confirm reports that Russia’s anti-satellite capability was a space-based nuclear weapon.
White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan held a closed-door meeting with congressional officials on Thursday about the development.
Secrecy and concern have gripped Washington since House committee chairman Mike Turner issued a public statement on Wednesday about a “serious threat to national security” and called on Biden to “declassify all information related to that threat.”
The sudden announcement infuriated Sullivan, who signaled frustration that Turner had gone public ahead of a briefing slated for today (Thursday).
Sullivan said he would meet with four House members in a “Gang of Eight” group of party leaders and top intelligence committee members, adding that it was “highly unusual” for him to seek such a meeting.
Democrat Biden and the Republican-led House are deadlocked over the White House’s request for $60 billion in military aid to help defend Ukraine against the Russian invasion, which is entering its third year.
Republican House Speaker Johnson — who has repeatedly warned he will not address the security of allies until America’s immigration system is shored up — is refusing to bring the Senate-passed bill up for a vote.
Kirby said the Ukrainian frontline town of Avdiivka was “in danger of falling under Russian control” in part because of a shortage of ammunition.
Moscow dismissed the threat warning as a US attempt to smear Russia and force funding from Ukraine.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the White House was “trying to get Congress to vote on the appropriations bill by any means,” state-run TASS news agency reported.
“It’s obvious. We’ll see what tricks, so to speak, the White House pulls,” she quoted him as saying.
Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov, who is involved in Russia’s nuclear policy, said the United States was “fantasizing” and should provide evidence of its claims.
The West has accused Russia of reckless nuclear rhetoric after President Vladimir Putin said he was ready to use a nuclear weapon if he felt an existential threat.
The Outer Space Treaty, to which both Russia and the United States are parties, prohibits the deployment of nuclear weapons in space.
The row, meanwhile, came when Putin said he preferred the “predictable” Biden to Donald Trump in November’s US presidential election.
