(MOSCOW) – A senior Russian parliamentarian has called for attacks on Western infrastructure and commercial satellites, escalating rhetoric on state television as the Kremlin seeks to blame its military failures on external support for Ukraine.
Leonid Kalashnikov, a deputy in the State Duma, appeared on the programme “60 Minutes” hosted by Olga Skabeeva on 28th August 2026. He urged the Russian military to destroy the Starlink satellite constellation used by Ukrainian forces for communication.
“I say this all the time. Let’s destroy the low-flying satellites on which Elon Musk works,” Kalashnikov said, according to a translation of the broadcast by the Russian Media Monitor. “There are already thousands of them. Launch one missile up there once and they will all scatter.”
He acknowledged that such an action could also disable Russia’s own limited satellite network. “Then you will destroy ours too, though. Oh, we have 256,” he stated, referring to the approximate number of Russian satellites. “Yes, we have 256 there. But I believe we need to destroy them.”
Kalashnikov expanded his call for escalation to include attacks on the United Kingdom and France, suggesting Moscow should target undersea energy and communication lines in the North Sea.
“We must do this. We are not at war with Great Britain, no, we are not at war, but they supply [weapons to Ukraine],” he said. “Then we need to use the same Jesuitical method to blow up the gas pipelines that go through the North Sea, since they did it to our gas pipelines. Why are we not doing this? Blow up the communication cables that pass there.”
The deputy also criticised United States President Donald Trump, characterising his political stance as deeply capitalist and suggesting Trump views communist ideology as an internal threat. He claimed Americans are electing communists to power and that Trump fears a similar outcome to China’s political system.
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