can the ISS become a collateral victim of the conflict?

The war in Ukraine is also being played out on the International Space Station. Russian cosmonauts have been ordered not to conduct any more scientific experiments with a German astronaut. Dmitry Rogozin, the boss of the Russian Space Agency, agitates on Twitter the threat of a fall of the ISS. “If you block cooperation with us, who will save the ISS from uncontrolled deorbiting, who will bring it down to the United States or Europe?”he notably shared on his account.

Very present on Twitter, the close friend of Vladimir Putin multiplies the provocations. Should we believe it? “If they abandoned their presence on board the International Space Station, and de facto destroyed it, they would no longer have access to space”, analyzes Alain Cirou, editorial director of Ciel et Espace. Within the ISS, the Russians are responsible for correcting the altitude of the space station. The threat, however, seems only virtual. If the Russians withdrew, the Americans provided an alternative to replace the Russian engines.