“That's what they should be doing instead of testing missiles.” Trump's tough message for Putin after Moscow tests 'Flying Chernobyl', new nuclear missile
Burevestnik nuclear-powered missile launched. Photo: east2west news / WillWest News / Profimedia
The relationship between Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump seems to have cooled again. The leader of the White House urged his Russian counterpart to end the war in Ukraine, instead of testing missiles, writes AFP.
Donald Trump said on Monday that his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin's announcement a day earlier of the final test of a Russian nuclear-powered cruise missile was completely “inappropriate”
“It's inappropriate for Putin to say that. He should end the war in Ukraine,” the US president said.
“This war, which was supposed to last a week, will soon enter its fourth year. Here's what they should be doing instead of testing missiles,” he continued in a chat with reporters aboard his plane to Japan on the second day of his Asia tour.
“They know we have a nuclear submarine, the best in the world, right off their coasts,” emphasized Trump, who had already mentioned this deployment recently.
Summit cancelled
Trump's reaction suggests the US president's displeasure after last week he canceled preparations for a possible summit with Vladimir Putin, which would have been aimed at stopping the war in Ukraine.
The decision by Trump, who said he did not want to waste time on a dead-end meeting, came after Moscow signaled to Washington that it had no intention of backing down on its maximalist demands and that it would not cease fire, at least until Ukraine fully cedes the eastern Donbas region – a condition that Kiev has rejected.
Trump had suggested that Moscow and Kiev could cease fire to freeze the war on the current front line.
On Thursday, the United States announced sanctions against two giants of the Russian hydrocarbon sector, Rosneft and Lukoil, the first major measures taken by Donald Trump against Russia since his return to power.
When asked by reporters if the US would impose additional sanctions, Trump replied: “You will find out.”
The flying inkwell
Trump's call to Putin came after Russia tested a new nuclear-capable, nuclear-powered cruise missile called the Burevestnik.
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.
VIDEO Russia has tested a nuclear-powered missile, considered by some to be a “flying Chernobyl”. Putin: “It's a truly unique system”
Its nuclear propulsion is designed to allow it to fly much further and for longer than traditional jet engines, which are limited by the amount of fuel they can carry.
This would allow it to “float” for an extended period before hitting a target. The Nuclear Threat Initiative, a US-based non-profit security organization, said it could potentially stay in the air for days: “During operations, the Burevestnik would carry one or more nuclear warheads, fly around the globe at low altitude, evade missile defense systems and bypass rugged terrain, dropping the warheads at a hard-to-reach location (or locations) provided for,” states a 2019 report.
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.
