Russia has tested a nuclear-powered missile and could revoke a global atomic test ban, Putin says

Table Of Content

• Putin says Russia tested nuclear-powered missile, warns of revoking ban on atomic tests
• Italy will continue to stand by Ukraine, but is mindful of waning public support, prime minister says
• Gen Z CEO Lists the Failed Businesses She Launched Before Finding Success
• Putin claims Russia successfully tested a nuclear-powered missile and could revoke a global test ban
• War Is More Offensive Than Protesters
• Russia has successfully tested a new nuclear-powered strategic missile, Putin says
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The NTI quoted Russian military expert Alexei Leonkov as describing the Burevestnik as a weapon of retaliation, which Russia would use after Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles to finish military and civilian infrastructure and not leave a chance of survival. The question now, Putin said, was about resolving some “purely administrative and bureaucratic” procedures in order to move on to mass production of these weapons and putting them on combat duty. The exercises will also include the scenario that general mobilization has ended, and there is the possibility of radioactive contamination, Baza reported. In February 2019, Russian state media reported that authorities had completed a "major stage of trials" for the Burevestnik.

Putin says Russia tested nuclear-powered missile, warns of revoking ban on atomic tests

The leader of the region of Abkhazia, a pro-Russian territory on the Black Sea that broke away from Georgia, says there will be a Russian military base on its coast. "According to preliminary findings, the facility was hit with an Iskander [missile]," Klymenko said. The crash came two months to the day after Prigozhin’s attempted mutiny against Russia’s military leadership, which posed the biggest challenge to Putin’s rule in decades.

Italy will continue to stand by Ukraine, but is mindful of waning public support, prime minister says

Satellite imagery collected over a remote Russian base in the Arctic and analysis from The New York Times suggested earlier this week that Russia was preparing for a cruise missile test. US President Joe Biden said on Wednesday he is worried about failed efforts by Congress to approve arms for Kyiv. The historic ouster of House Speaker Kevin McCarthy on Tuesday from the law-making branch of Washington means that legislation cannot be passed until a new leader is installed -- potentially delaying military aid for Ukraine. The CSIS Missile Defense Project’s monthly newsletter has info on the project’s latest publications, events, and missile defense news.

Gen Z CEO Lists the Failed Businesses She Launched Before Finding Success

That Russia has continued to make advanced guided missiles like the Kh-101 suggests that it has found ways to acquire semiconductors and other matériel despite the sanctions or that it had significant stockpiles of the components before the war began, one of the researchers said. "This was not a new launch of the weapon, instead it was a recovery mission to salvage a lost missile from a previous test," a source with direct knowledge of U.S. intelligence into the missile told CNBC at the time. The report noted that while little has been revealed about the weapon, based on Russian military's statements the missile is "likely around 12 meters in length and up to 1.5 meters in diameter." "In terms of concept and design, this cruise missile looks as if it was taken straight from a Cold War-era playbook and is rather similar to the US Air Force's Project Pluto weapon concept," a NATO Energy Security Centre of Excellence (ENSECCOE) 2021 report stated. Although the development of the nuclear-powered missile began years ago, the war in Ukraine has prompted an increase in bellicose nuclear rhetoric, particularly from Russian state media. Putin didn't say when the Burevestnik was tested, but assuming it was tested as he claimed Thursday, it would mark the first known launch since 2019.

Russian leadership claims the country tested one of its new "super weapons," specifically the Burevestnik nuclear-powered cruise missile, and it purportedly worked. The "last successful test of the Burevestnik, a global-range cruise missile with a nuclear installation, a nuclear propulsion system, has been conducted," state news agency RIA Novosti quoted Putin as saying at the Valdai Discussion Club forum in the southern Russian city of Sochi. But the New York Times reported earlier this week, citing satellite imagery and aviation data, that Russia may be preparing to test an experimental nuclear-powered cruise missile, or may have recently tested one. Experts examined remnants of Kh-101 cruise missiles found in Kyiv, the capital, after an attack on Nov. 23 that knocked out electricity and shut down water systems in large areas of the country. One of the missiles was made this summer, and another was completed after September, markings on the weapons show, according to a report released by the investigators on Monday.

Russia has both alluded to the possible use of tactical nuclear weapons and cautioned against the suggestion that the war could turn nuclear, while Ukraine's Western backers have been hesitant at times about potentially escalating the conflict through further military aid packages. In the late 1950s, the United States had yet to deploy the intercontinental ballistic missiles and submarine-launched ballistic missiles that remain two of three pillars of Washington’s nuclear deterrence today. That meant the drawing board was open for alternative methods to threaten Washington’s adversaries with atomic devastation. Russian military expert Alexei Leonkov described the Burevestnik as a weapon of retaliation, which Russia would use after intercontinental ballistic missiles to fully destroy military and civilian infrastructure and leave no chance of survival, according to the analytical group. President Vladimir V. Putin claimed on Thursday that Russia had successfully tested the Burevestnik, an experimental nuclear-powered cruise missile, and had almost completed work on a new type of nuclear-capable ballistic missile.

The fallen Ukrainian soldier had previously been buried in the city of Dnipro, but his relatives wanted him to be reburied in the village where he was originally from, Chubenko said. A wake for a fallen Ukrainian soldier was being held at the village cafe when the missile struck, killing several members of the soldier’s family, Dmytro Chubenko, spokesperson for the Kharkiv Regional Prosecutor’s Office, told Ukrainian media outlet RBC. Technologically, the weapon is not that much of a challenge, said Alberque, but safely deploying it is much more difficult. Putin did not specify when or where the alleged testing of the Burevestnik missile took place.

Satellite imagery indicates that a number of Russian naval ships have been relocated to other ports in the Black Sea following several devastating Ukrainian missile strikes on the Crimean port of Sevastopol. Speaking to reporters at the summit, Zelensky later added that while uncertainty in the US presents challenges for Ukraine, the country has proven its resilience throughout the war. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said, who is on a visit to Spain, called the attack "a demonstrably brutal Russian crime — a rocket attack on an ordinary grocery store, a completely deliberate terrorist attack." Local time, Russian forces shelled a cafe and shop in the village of Hroza in the Kupiansk district, according to Oleh Syniehubov, head of the Kharkiv region military administration. The Russian leader, whose government has denied involvement in the crash, did not detail how grenades might have exploded on the plane, but said that he thought investigators should have performed drug or alcohol tests on the bodies of the victims.

“No person in his right mind and clear memory” would think of using nuclear weapons against Russia, Putin said. Putin’s statement comes amid widespread concerns that Russia could move to resume nuclear tests to try to discourage the West from continuing to offer military support to Ukraine after the Kremlin sent troops into the country. It is believed to be able to carry a nuclear warhead or a conventional one, and potentially could stay aloft for a much longer time than other missiles and cover much more distance, thanks to nuclear propulsion. The findings are among the most recent by Conflict Armament Research, an independent group based in Britain that identifies and tracks weapons and ammunition used in wars. A small team of its researchers arrived in Kyiv just before the attack at the invitation of the Ukrainian security service. The NTI said in 2019 that the missile has a range of approximately 14,000 miles, and is "a second-strike, strategic-range weapon of a type that has not been deployed by any other nation."

The strike appears to be the deadliest against Ukraine's civilian population since an attack on Kramatorsk railway station early in 2022. At least 51 people have been killed in a Russian strike that hit a grocery store near Kupiansk Thursday, Ukrainian Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said, adding that the latest fatality came after one of the injured people died while receiving treatment. A suspected failed test of Burevestnik in 2019 killed five scientists and caused a radiation spike in a nearby city. The Russian leader’s renewed nuclear talk on Thursday came against the backdrop of escalating rhetoric among Kremlin hawks, with a prominent propagandist drawing criticism this week for claims Russia should detonate a nuclear weapon over Siberia to send a message to the West. Little is known about the Burevestnik, which was code-named Skyfall by NATO, and many Western experts have been skeptical about it, noting that a nuclear engine could be highly unreliable.

If confirmed, it would mark the first time that Moscow has held such drills, which will imagine that Russia is at least partially under martial law and that up to 70 percent of the country's housing facilities have been destroyed, the outlet reported. However, in late September Russia announced plans to hold nationwide exercises in preparation for "the danger of armed conflicts involving nuclear powers," according to Baza Telegram channel, which is linked to Russia's security services. On Tuesday Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov also said Moscow had "not left the regime of abandoning nuclear tests" in response to Simonyan's explosive comment. On Tuesday, the Kremlin dismissed the report in the Times, saying the newspaper's journalists should "study satellite imagery more properly." Putin's admission comes just days after the Kremlin denied Western media's reports that Russia has carried out, or was on the verge of carrying out, tests of the nuclear-capable missile in the Arctic.

The test precedes the U.S. notice of withdrawal from the INF Treaty on February 2 after Russian violations of the agreement. One concept was to use a nuclear ramjet propulsion system to create a rocket that could fly for months thanks to a small nuclear reactor on board. The ramjet functioned by sucking in onrushing air while traveling several times the speed of sound, and warming it with its small reactor. The heated air would expand and get squeezed out exhaust nozzles to result in high-speed propulsion. Putin said the nuclear-powered cruise missile tested last fall has an unlimited range and high speed and maneuverability allowing it to pierce any missile defense. If Burevestnik becomes operational—and that’s a big if given the complexity and danger of nuclear-powered engines—Russia could launch cruise missiles from the Asian mainland, program them to cross the Pacific, go around South America, and penetrate U.S. airspace from the Gulf of Mexico.

Putin holds out possibility that Russia could resume nuclear testing - Reuters

Putin holds out possibility that Russia could resume nuclear testing.

Posted: Thu, 05 Oct 2023 07:00:00 GMT [source]

The SLAM missile was expected to soar towards its Soviet targets at tree-top level, traveling at three times the speed of sound. The combination of low-altitude (reducing detection range) and Mach 3 speed was thought to make it too fast for interception by fighters or surface-to-air missile. The sonic shock wave produced by the huge missile was believed to be strong enough to kill anyone caught underneath it. Putin said the new weapons will help ensure global stability and draw a line under attempts to weaken Russia.

Little is known about how far Russian engineers have got with the missile's development, but it appears to be still far off being a useful and operational capability, according to Fabian Hoffmann, a doctoral research fellow at the University of Oslo, Norway. Italy has been a steadfast supporter of Ukraine, so far providing six military support packages and over 165 million euros ($173 million) in humanitarian aid. The wartime leader was asked if he is worried the removal of House Speaker Kevin McCarthy from Congress on Tuesday could stall legislative approval for further US aid for Ukraine.