US official: Russia’s stalker satellite sure looks like an orbital weapon
Summary
A US official described Russia’s Kosmos 2612 as behaving in a manner consistent with on-orbit weapons, following a close approach to the ICEYE-X36 commercial satellite. Russian officials, including Konstantin Vorontsov, defended the activity as peaceful and criticized Western suspicions. The piece places the event in the broader context of ASAT tests, UN discussions on space weapons, and the Outer Space Treaty, noting satellite-tracking data from LeoLabs and imagery from Vantor, as well as ongoing debates around space security and governance.