Russia tested a new powerful nuclear missile and has the ability to renew existing defenses, an inch closer to using its forces, President Vladimir Putin said in a statement released on Sunday.
The announcement, which followed years of Burevenstnik missile tests, comes as part of a nuclear message from the Kremlin, which has strongly warned the United States and other Russian allies about the West’s long-range weapons.
A video released by the Kremlin showed Putin, wearing a message from gen. Valery Gerasimov, Russia’s chief of general staff, told the Russian leader that Burevestnik covered 14,000 kilometers in a key test on Tuesday.
Gerasimov said that the burevevestnik, or storm petrel in Russian, spent 15 hours in the air with nuclear power, but, he added, “it is not the limit.”
Little is known about the burevesstnik, which was nicknamed Sky Fally by the North Atlantic Craight Organization, and many Western experts have been skeptical about it, noting that the nuclear engine may be unreliable.
When Putin first revealed that Russia was working on a weapon in his 2018 state of the nation address, he said it would have an unlimited range, allowing you to shoot the Green Greenket.
Many observers say that such a missile would be difficult to handle and pose an environmental threat. The US and the Soviet Union worked on nuclear-powered missiles during the Cold War, but ultimately shelved the projects, considering them too risky.
A burevevtynik reportedly went off in August 2019 during a test at a military range in the Sea, killing five engineers and two service members and briefly finding a building in a nearby town.
Russian authorities have not identified the weapon involved, but the US said it was a burevestednik.
“We need to find possible uses and start preparing the infrastructure for using these weapons in our armed forces,” Putin told Gerasimov.
The Russian leader also said that current and future defenses are under attack, due to their unlimited range and unpredictable flight path.
Kirill Dmitriv, Putin’s top aide who was in the US when the video was made, said that those harassers informed our colleagues of the ‘successful testing’ of the burevenstnik, which meant that it was a “completely new class” of the weapon.
The European Union has imposed several economic objectives on Russia, adding to US President Donald Trump’s opposition to the Russian oil industry.
Earlier this week, Putin directed Russian nuclear forces drills that included missile launches. This work came as his planned summit in Ukraine with US President Donald Trump was arrested.
The Kremlin said the maneuvers included all parts of Moscow’s nuclear triad, including the Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles that were to be tested at launch sites in the north and west of Russia and the Navy’s naval base. The drive also involved tu-95 Sterts Symty Coompurs firing long-range missiles.
The exercise tested the capabilities of the military’s command organizations, the Kremlin said in a statement on Wednesday.
The announcement over the weekend was made as Russia targeted Ukraine with drones, killing at least seven people in their homes, authorities said following the attack on Saturday and Sunday.
In a drone attack on Kyiv on Sunday, three people were killed and at least 29 were injured, seven of them children. It was the second night in a row of attacks on the Ukrainian capital to claim lives of soldiers.
Ukraine’s Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said the 19-year-old boy and his 46-year-old mother were among the dead.
At least four people were killed the night before, and 20 were injured, officials said, making new requests from the President of Ukraine for Western air defense systems.
Two people were killed and 13 were injured in an attack on a healthy misle in the early hours of Saturday, Kyiv police said.
