Putin denies plans to send nuclear weapon into space

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday pushed back against the United States’s claims that he plans to deploy a nuclear weapon into space.

“We have always been categorically against and are now against the deployment of nuclear weapons in space,” Putin said Tuesday during a televised meeting with Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, according to Bloomberg. “We are doing in space only what other countries have, including the United States.”

Concerns over Russia’s possible nuclear ambitions in space were hoisted into the spotlight last week following a cryptic warning from House Intelligence Committee Chair Mike Turner (R-Ohio), who called on President Biden to declassify information on a “serious national security threat.”

White House spokesperson John Kirby said last week the weapon was “related to an anti-satellite capability that Russia is developing,” while noting the system has not yet been deployed. The Biden administration has held back from sharing additional details about the weapon.

The U.S. reportedly has told allies Russia could deploy a nuclear weapon or a mock warhead into space as early as this year, Bloomberg reported Monday, citing people familiar with the matter. 

The anonymous sources said Russia is working on a capability that would be based in space and could take out other satellites with a nuclear weapon.

Shoigu maintained Tuesday that there were no plans for a space-based anti-satellite nuclear weapon, Reuters reported. 

“Firstly, there are no such projects — nuclear weapons in space. Secondly, the United States knows that this does not exist,” Shoigu told Putin, per the news wire. 

Shoigu alleged the White House was using the warning to push U.S. lawmakers into securing more funds for Ukraine in its fight with Russia, per Reuters. Aid for Ukraine has been left in limbo in Congress amid opposition from some Republicans, and demands for sweeping immigration reform from House GOP leaders.

The defense minister also suggested the leak about Russia’s space aims was part of an effort to push Moscow into discussing strategic stability, the news wire added.

The Hill reached out to the White House for comment. 

A nuclear weapon in space would violate the Outer Space Treaty, signed by Russia and the U.S. in 1967. It is not immediately clear what consequences Russia could face for violating the treaty, though Susi Snyder, a program coordinator at the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, told The Hill last week the first step would likely include action at the United Nations Security Council.