Russia has announced that it will no longer sell rocket engines built in Russia to the United States.
Dmitry Rogozin, the head of Russia’s space agency, Roscosmos, announced this on state television on Thursday, effectively ending a decades-long rocket partnership between the two countries.
“Today we have made a decision to halt the deliveries of rocket engines produced by NPO Energomash to the United States,” Rogozin said, according to the Russian news site TASS.
“Let me remind you that these deliveries had been quite intensive somewhere since the mid-1990s.”
TASS reported that the ban will apply to RD-180 engines that power US-based United Launch Alliance’s (ULA) Atlas V rockets.
However, ULA’s CEO Tory Bruno said on. Twitter that ULA has already taken delivery of the RD-180s it needs in the near term.
Russia and the Ukraine Republic began fighting last week Thursday after President Vladimir Putin ordered his army to invade their neighbours over some unresolved political issues.
The United States of America and other western countries have since hit Russia with a series of sanctions while others have promised to supply Ukraine with lethal weapons
Following the invasion, Ukrainian sources said that over 2,000 civilians have been killed.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, on the other hand, said that his country has killed over 9,000 Russian troops already.
The Russian defence ministry has since dismissed this, stating that only 498 troops have died.