FILE PHOTO: Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a meeting with his Serbian counterpart Aleksandar Vucic in Sochi, Russia December 4, 2019. REUTERS/Shamil Zhumatov/Pool

SOCHI, Russia (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday that the United States was rapidly developing its military forces for potential operations in space and that Washington openly viewed space as a potential theater of war.

Putin, who was speaking in the Black Sea city of Sochi in southern Russia, said that Moscow categorically opposed the militarization of space but that the U.S. moves meant Russia had to further develop its own space sector.