On Sunday, a Russian official said that enemy spy satellites disguised as space junk has been detected orbiting above its territory.

The remarks were made by Gen. Oleg Maidanovich, the head of Russia's Aerospace Defense Forces' Space Command during the 40-minute, state-produced film Space Special Forces, which was shown on the defense ministry channel Zvezda.

The film was released to celebrate the space flight of cosmonaut Yury Gagarin on April 12, 1961. Maidanovich said, "Very recently, specialists of the department of space intelligence center uncovered a newly created group of space satellites made for radio-technical reconnaissance of equipment on Russian territory".

Russia's Space Command is the section of the Russian military that is in charge of missile and airstrike warnings. The command monitors space debris to prevent collisions, gathers intelligence, identify new space objects and monitor de-orbiting space vehicles.

It monitors about 20,000 objects orbiting the planet, out of about 100,000, every day as it believes the objects could serve a military purpose. It also controls the country's defense satellites.

Laser-optic and optronic space tracking systems have been installed in several regions of Russia, from Moscow to the Pacific region and a "Okno" (Window) optical tracking facility in the mountains of central Tajikistan. Okno is able to monitor objects as far as 40,000 kilometers into space.

According to Maidanovich, spy satellites floating as space trash for years can be inactive. He refused to name for which country or countries the satellites were gathering information.

He said when the spy satellite was found by Space Command, the information is taken to the country's leadership for decisions to be made at international levels. He added that there are no current plans to destroy any of the discovered satellites.