Representatives of the United States and Russia have sparred at the UN Security Council over military activities in outer space.

The Security Council on Monday voted down a Russian-drafted resolution that called to prevent "for all time" the placement of weapons in outer space. The draft failed to receive the minimum nine votes.

Before the voting, deputy US ambassador Robert Wood said Russia launched a satellite last week that, according to Washington's assessment, is presumably capable of attacking other satellites in low Earth orbit.

Wood accused Russia of seeking to "distract global attention from its development of a new satellite carrying a nuclear device."
Russia's UN ambassador Vassily Nebenzia responded by saying that he "didn't even fully understand" what the US envoy was talking about.

In April, Russia vetoed a draft resolution presented by Japan and the United States, which sought a ban on the development of nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction for deployment in Earth's orbit.

The Russian draft that was voted down on Monday called on countries not to deploy of any kind of weapons in space, including WMDs.