Russia launched the satellite Kosmos-2558 from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in August 2022. Nearly three years later, on June 28, 2025, the spacecraft “split in two,” shedding a sub-satellite that American space trackers cataloged as Object C. This seemingly unremarkable event, according to U.S. military officials and experts, represents another act in Russia’s preparation for space warfare, if not an act of war itself. Russian “nesting dolls” and their unusual maneuvers have repeatedly prompted U.S. accusations that the Kremlin is militarizing space. Washington’s rhetoric now echoes complaints Moscow made in the 1980s about Ronald Reagan’s Strategic Defense Initiative, better known as the “Star Wars” program. Four decades later, concerns have shifted from America’s orbiting super-lasers to Russia’s “inspector satellites” that can monitor U.S. spacecraft and carry out acts of sabotage.