“The most powerful missile in the world” enters the service of the Russian army, Putin announces
Russia will put its new Sarmat strategic nuclear missile into service by the end of this year, President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday, describing it as “the most powerful in the world”.
The introduction of the missile – designed to launch nuclear warheads at targets thousands of kilometers away in the United States or Europe – comes after years of setbacks and delays.
In a televised statement, Putin said the Sarmat missile's warhead power is more than four times that of any Western equivalent and its range exceeds 35,000 kilometers (21,750 miles).
“It has the ability to penetrate all existing and future missile defense systems,” the Kremlin leader said.
Western security analysts believe Putin has made exaggerated claims about the capabilities of a new generation of Russian nuclear weapons, part of a modernization program he first announced in 2018.
The Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missile has had failures in the past – a test in September 2024 left a deep crater in the area of the launch silo, according to Western experts.
State television showed Sergei Karakayev, commander of Russia's strategic missile forces, reporting to Putin on what he called a successful test launch of the Sarmat missile on Tuesday.
“The deployment of launchers equipped with the Sarmat missile system will significantly increase the combat capabilities of the ground strategic nuclear forces in terms of guaranteeing the destruction of targets and solving the problems of strategic deterrence,” Karakayev said.
Since the start of the war in Ukraine in 2022, Putin has repeatedly reminded the world of the size and power of Russia's nuclear arsenal, in statements seen by the West as attempts to dissuade him from intervening too heavily on Ukraine's side.
