VIDEO Russia tested a nuclear-powered missile. Putin: “It's a truly unique system” / What is known about Burevestnik, nicknamed by critics “Flying Chernobyl”

Russia has tested a new nuclear-capable, nuclear-powered cruise missile called the Burevestnik, the head of the Russian military told President Vladimir Putin in statements made public on Sunday, according to Reuters.

The missile traveled 14,000 km and flew for about 15 hours, General Valery Gerasimov, Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, said to the Kremlin leader

Putin has claimed that the 9M730 Burevestnik (Storm Petrel) missile – dubbed the SSC-X-9 Skyfall by NATO – is “invincible” to current and future missile defense systems, with an almost unlimited range and an unpredictable flight path.

In his remarks on Sunday, Putin, dressed in a camouflage uniform, told Gerasimov that crucial tests of the Burevestnik missile had been completed and that work should begin on the final stage before the missiles were deployed.

“It is truly a unique system, one that no other country possesses,” Putin claimed.

🚨🚨 No other country in the world possesses anything like the Burevestnik cruise missile, which has unlimited range: Putin

“It concerns the test of the Burevestnik cruise missile — a weapon of unlimited range powered by a nuclear engine.” https://t.co/S1nLbNHtuY pic.twitter.com/qo79QCOrRQ

— Sputnik India (@Sputnik_India) October 26, 2025

A secret meeting was held in the “city of the Soviet atomic bomb” in the summer

In late August, Vladimir Putin paid a low-key visit to Sarov, the center of Russia's nuclear industry and the site of the first Soviet atomic bomb.

A secret meeting was held there, which did not appear on the Kremlin's official agenda, Kommersant journalist Andrei Kolesnikov, who was in the presidential delegation, reported, according to the Moscow Times.

According to reports on Russian Telegram channels in the area, the meeting focused on discussions about the nuclear-powered “Burevestnik” missile, a project announced by the Kremlin leader back in 2018.

Mainly, the possibility of introducing the weapon into the arsenal of the Russian army in 2025 was discussed.

Many attempts to test the “Flying Chernobyl”

Putin said just before the 2018 presidential election that the weapon, dubbed the SSC-X-9 Skyfall by NATO, was “invincible,” pointing out that the missile could hit almost anywhere on the globe and evade the US-built anti-missile shield, according to Reuters.

Designed as an unlimited-range missile, the “Burevestnik” has had at least 13 launch attempts, according to Western intelligence. Only two were partially successful, and one ended in tragedy: in 2019, a rocket crashed into the Barents Sea, and during the recovery operation it exploded, killing seven people, including researchers from Sarov. The incident produced a radioactive cloud detected both in Severodvinsk and in the Scandinavian countries.

Another test allegedly took place in October 2023, which Putin declared “successful”, stating that the missile's development was “almost complete”.

Western critics call it the “Flying Chernobyl”. In 2020, the US special envoy for arms control, Marshall Billingslea, warned that the project was extremely dangerous.

The missile would not only carry a nuclear warhead but also nuclear fuel on board, risking leaving behind a radioactive cloud in flight, and any fallout could contaminate vast territories, he said.