UN SECURITY COUNCIL REJECTS RUSSIA-BACKED RESOLUTION ON BANNING WEAPONS IN SPACE

The United States said this week that Russia last week launched a satellite that could be part of weaponizing space, a possible future global trend that members of the United Nations Security Council condemned even as they failed to pass a measure against it.

The Security Council resolution drafted by Russia rivaled one backed by the U.S. and Japan that failed last month. The rival drafts focused on different types of weapons, with the U.S. and Japan specifying weapons of mass destruction. The Russian draft discussed all types of weapons.

The U.S. and its allies said the language that the 15-member council debated was simply meant to distract the world from Russia’s true intention: weaponizing space.

“The culmination of Russia’s campaign of diplomatic gaslighting and dissembling is the text before us today,” U.S. Deputy Ambassador Robert Wood told the council.

Russia’s U.N. ambassador, Vassily Nebenzia, denied that his nation was trying to mislead the world. Backed by China and others, he called the vote “a unique moment of truth for our Western colleagues.”