Russia's space agency Roscosmos warned that sanctions against the country in the wake of Ukraine invasion could case the International space station to crash.
Dmitry Rogozin, the head of Roscosmos called for punitive measures to be lifted, saying the sanctions could disrupt the operation of Russian spacecraft servicing the ISS.
"The Russian segment ensures that the station's orbit is corrected (on average 11 times a year), including to avoid space debris", said Rogozin, who regularly expresses his support for the Russian army in Ukraine on social networks.
Roscosmos has sent written appeals to, Canadian Space Agency and European Space Agency with a demand to lift illegal sanctions from our enterprises - contractors of works in the interests of МКС, he tweeted on Saturday.
He illustrated the appeal with a map showing the flight path of the ISS — and a potential fall zone that straddles much of the world but barely touches upon Russia.
Four NASA astronauts, two Russian cosmonauts and one European astronaut are currently on the space station.
Russia's invasion of Ukraine has had repercussions not just around the world but beyond it, bringing to a grinding halt joint space projects between Moscow and the West that began in the aftermath of the Cold War.
In response to the sweeping sanctions imposed on Russia by most of the Western world, Roscosmos also told the German Aerospace Center that it will no longer take part in "joint space experiments" on the International Space Station.
Roscosmos had earlier suspended launches from Europe's spaceport in French Guiana's Kourou, which use Russian Soyuz rockets, withdrawing around a hundred of its workers.
Another victim is the Rosalind Franklin rover, whose launch under the joint Russian-European ExoMars mission had already been postponed from 2020 due to the pandemic.
Just how much the war and sanctions will affect space cooperation between Russia and the West remains to be seen.
The ESA's director general tweeted last week that "notwithstanding the current conflict, civil space cooperation remains a bridge".
Russia's declaration that it has ended joint space experiments with Germany on the ISS has put German astronaut Matthias Maurer -- who is currently onboard the station -- in a tight spot.
NASA said last week it is exploring ways to keep the ISS in orbit with Russian help, after Roscosmos chief Rogozin raised the prospect of pulling out in response to US sanctions.
The US, EU and other allies escalated their economic pressure on Russia, moving to strip Moscow of privileged trade and economic treatment among other steps to punish it for its invasion of Ukraine.
US President Joe Biden said the new actions collectively will further hobble a Russian economy already weighed down by previously announced international sanctions that have cratered the rouble and forced the stock market to close.
Referring to ending normal trade relations, Biden said: "Doing it in unison with other nations that make up half of the global economy will be another crushing blow to the Russian economy that's already suffering very badly from our sanctions."
