Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed on Thursday his country has successfully tested the nuclear-powered intercontinental cruise missile Burevestnik – dubbed in the West “Flying Chernobyl”.
Appearing at the Valdai Discussion Club in the Black Sea resort of Sochi, the Russian leader said, as reported by state news agency RIA Novosti: “The last successful test of the Burevestnik, a global-range cruise missile with a nuclear installation and a nuclear propulsion system, was carried out.”
This came just days after an analysis of satellite images of an Arctic base suggested Russia had or was about to conduct tests of the Burevestnik missile.
The satellite imageries showed movements in the area resembling those spotted during previous tests of the same weapons in 2017 and 2018, the New York Times wrote.
Those tests were deemed unsuccessful by Western observers.
Another test in 2019 reportedly killed seven people after the missile crashed and exploded as staff attempted to recover it.
Little details have been shared so far by Russia about the Burevestnik missile, also known as SSC-X-9 Skyfall, but it is believed it can carry both conventional warheads as well as a nuclear payload.
The Russian Ministry of Defence previously claimed the weapon is an intercontinental cruise missile with an almost unlimited range thanks to its nuclear reactor, which allows it to remain in the air for a long period of time.
The ministry also alleged the low-flying rocket can’t be detected by existing Western air defence systems.
This missile is one of the six strategic weapons unveiled by the Russian president during a speech to the Federal Assembly in March 2018.
While in Sochi, Putin also spoke of a second weapon he had first mentioned five years ago – the Sarmat missile system, dubbed Satan II by Western nations.
He said: “We just need to finish some of the procedures in a purely administrative and bureaucratic way and move on to mass production and putting them on combat duty. And we will do this in the near future.”
This seemingly contradicts what the Russian space agency stated last month, when it claimed the Satan II had been put on “combat duty”.
While discussing his country’s advancement on nuclear-capable weapons, Putin also listed the two main reasons why he would resort to nuclear force: “A strike against us, a threat to the existence of Russia.”
In what appeared a warning to the West, he added that for the time being he doesn’t see global conditions threatening the existence of the Russian state. No person “in their right mind”, he said, would think of striking with nuclear power his country, arguing the “enemy would have no chance” of surviving Russian retaliatory moves.
While threats of deploying nuclear weapons have come from Russia since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, Putin said of Russia’s defensive measures against a possible strike against his country: “From the moment the launch of missiles is detected, no matter where it comes from – from any point of the world ocean or from any territory – such a number, so many hundreds of our missiles appear in the air in a retaliatory strike that there is no chance of survival there will be no single enemy left, and in several directions at once.”
