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Russia terminates launches of EU military satellites into orbit

Roscosmos Spokesman Dmitry Strugovets noted that there was "no point in discussing" reconnaissance satellites after the EU had said it wanted to share the images collected by satellites with Ukraine’s armed units

MOSCOW, March 29. /TASS/. Russia has decided to stop launching its Soyuz rockets from the Kourou spaceport in French Guiana because it was supposed to put military satellites into orbit, Roscosmos Spokesman Dmitry Strugovets said Tuesday in a Telegram post.

"Now, concerning the payload that our Soyuzes were supposed to launch from Kourou: four navigation satellites, a reconnaissance satellite and a scientific spacecraft. I would like to specify that navigation spacecraft are not used to help taxi drivers to get from point A to point B, but to point out high-precision weapons. That is the key function of GPS, GLONASS and other navigation satellite systems," he wrote.

Strugovets said there was "no point in discussing" reconnaissance satellites after the EU had said it wanted to share the images collected by satellites with Ukraine’s armed units. "In this regard it is strange to read posts on the Internet stating that Roscosmos has allegedly withdrawn from the commercial space launch market itself or that it is an unreliable partner. Who do bloggers see as a reliable partner, is it someone who helps kill their country’s servicemen?" he contended.

Roscosmos CEO Dmitry Rogozin said earlier the Russian state space corporation suspended its cooperation with European partners on space launches from the Guiana Space Center in Kourou in response to the EU sanctions and withdrew its technical staff.

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