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Satellite Internet

Medvedev warns blocking Russia's Rassvet satellite network would trigger 'full-scale space warfare'

Deputy Security Council chairman Dmitry Medvedev warned on Sunday that 'blocking' Russia's Rassvet satellite network at Ukraine's request would amount to its destruction and lead to 'full-scale space warfare', with US Starlink satellites tumbling 'like ornaments from a dried-up Christmas tree'.

By Tom Ellery · · 1 min read

Former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev speaks at a lectern
Photo: Reuters

Dmitry Medvedev, deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council, warned on Sunday that any move to “block” Russia’s Rassvet satellite network at Ukraine’s request would amount to the constellation’s destruction and trigger “full-scale space warfare”, Europe Says and Türkiye Today report.

Writing on Telegram, the former Russian president said “space is a very crowded place” and called for “mutual courtesy”, adding: “The Americans, I hope, realize this. After all, their low-orbit Starlink satellites would come tumbling down like ornaments from a dried-up Christmas tree.”

Medvedev was responding to Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s interview with the Financial Times on Saturday, in which the Ukrainian president said he had asked Donald Trump to impose sanctions on Russian and Chinese companies developing Rassvet, a Starlink rival. Zelenskyy said China is helping Russia build the network, which could become operational by “the end of the year, beginning next year”, and warned it could sharpen the precision of Russian airstrikes, The New Voice of Ukraine and Ukrainska Pravda report.

Rassvet is a low-Earth-orbit broadband network built by Russia’s Bureau 1440. Moscow launched batches of satellites in March and July 2026 as it races to field a domestic alternative to Starlink, which Ukrainian forces have relied on heavily for battlefield communications and drone operations.

Sources

More on this topic: all Satellite Internet stories

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