U.S. says Russian satellite Cosmos 2612 maneuvered dangerously close to a commercial satellite

As of 6:54 p.m. ET, Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2026

The United States on Wednesday accused Russia of flying its Cosmos 2612 military satellite dangerously close to a commercial satellite, saying the maneuvers were consistent with on-orbit weapons operations.

"As just announced in the @UN First Committee, Russia's COSMOS 2612 military satellite has been exhibiting threatening behavior by intentionally maneuvering dangerously close to a commercial satellite, behaviors consistent with on-orbit weapons operations," Thomas DiNanno, the State Department's under secretary for arms control and international security, said in a post on X at 1:14 p.m. ET.

"This violates long-established safety thresholds in low Earth orbit," DiNanno said. "The United States will continue to secure and defend American vital national security interests in, from, and to space."

What the U.S. told the UN

The U.S. representative raised the satellite during a First Committee debate on outer space at the UN General Assembly on Wednesday, according to the UN's summary of the meeting. "Just last weekend, Russia's Ministry of Defense satellite COSMOS 2612 exhibited threatening behavior by intentionally maneuvering dangerously close to a commercial satellite," the U.S. representative said, according to the summary.

The summary said the U.S. representative called on Moscow to be transparent about the satellite's activities, said discussions should begin from the reality that "space has long been weaponized," and accused Russia and China of "developing, testing and operationalizing weapons for years."

Which satellite

Neither DiNanno's post nor the UN summary named the commercial satellite. The space-tracking company LeoLabs said Monday that Cosmos 2612 had conducted "a deliberate series of maneuvers toward ICEYE-X36" between Oct. 15 and Oct. 19, Breaking Defense reported. ICEYE-X36 is a radar imaging satellite operated by ICEYE, a company with offices in the United States and Finland, CNN reported.

LeoLabs said Cosmos 2612 approached to within roughly 500 meters of ICEYE-X36 during part of the event, adding that "exact separation estimates carry uncertainty because of the repeated maneuvers and challenging tracking geometry," according to CNN. LeoLabs said the event and the capabilities shown "do not establish hostile intent," but demonstrated capabilities that could support intelligence collection, on-orbit inspection, interference "or preparation for future counterspace operations," CNN reported.

ICEYE said in a statement Monday, "We are aware of the situation and tracking it closely. Our constellation architecture is designed for continuity and resilience," CNN reported. ICEYE has an agreement to supply radar imagery to Ukraine but has not publicly said whether ICEYE-X36 is used for it, CNN and Breaking Defense reported.

Russia's position

Russia had not responded specifically to the U.S. accusation about Cosmos 2612 as of 6:54 p.m. ET.

In a right-of-reply statement in the same First Committee debate, which Russia's Foreign Ministry dated Oct. 20, a day before the U.S. remarks, and posted on its website Wednesday, Russian delegate Konstantin Vorontsov said Russia rejected "all unfounded and baseless insinuations" about its space activities. He said Russia's space activities were carried out "exclusively for peaceful purposes and do not threaten the activities of other states in space." The statement did not mention Cosmos 2612.

In Russia's main statement to the debate, Vorontsov accused the United States and its allies of pursuing "a destructive course to place weapons in orbit," and said NATO countries were using satellite constellations "declared as systems for civilian (including commercial) purposes to support combat operations of foreign armed forces," according to the Foreign Ministry's English translation.

What is not known

The State Department did not say what weapons capability it believed Cosmos 2612 has, how close the satellite came to the commercial satellite by its own measurement, or what "safety thresholds" it was referring to. It did not say what steps, if any, the United States planned to take.

It was not known what Cosmos 2612 was doing near ICEYE-X36 or whether the commercial satellite was affected.