By conducting nuclear drills and announcing the successful test of a groundbreaking nuclear-powered cruise missile, Russian President Vladimir Putin is signaling to U.S. President Donald Trump that Russia will not be intimidated into making concessions regarding Ukraine.
In response to Trump’s call for a swift ceasefire and the imposition of new U.S. sanctions targeting Russia’s oil sector, Putin is once again underscoring his nuclear capabilities to reinforce his extensive demands, which the U.S. and other Western supporters of Kyiv have consistently opposed.
Putin has stipulated that Ukraine must withdraw its forces from the four regions that Russia has annexed illegally but has never fully controlled, in addition to abandoning its aspirations to join NATO—conditions that have been outright rejected by Kyiv and its Western allies.
Here’s an examination of Russia’s latest missile development and its significance in Putin’s nuclear strategy:
Russia’s answer to the U.S. missile defense system
The Burevestnik, translating to “storm petrel” in Russian, is hailed as the world’s inaugural nuclear-powered missile. Its unique propulsion system grants it an almost limitless range, enabling it to linger for days, maneuvering around enemy air defenses and launching attacks from unexpected directions.
Putin first announced the missile in a 2018 state-of-the-nation address, along with several other prospective weapons, declaring it would be able to dodge air defenses.
The development of the Burevestnik, which has been code-named “Skyfall” by NATO, has continued despite reported launch failures. On Sunday, Russia’s chief military officer, Gen. Valery Gerasimov, reported to Putin that an Oct. 21 test of the Burevestnik was a complete success that proved its capabilities.
The missile covered 14,000 kilometers (8,680 miles) during a 15-hour flight using nuclear fuel and conducted maneuvers “demonstrating its high capabilities in evading missile and air defense systems,” Gerasimov said.
“The technical characteristics of the Burevestnik missile effectively allow it to be used with guaranteed accuracy against highly protected targets at any distance,” he added.
While Russian officials have revealed no details about the weapon, Russian media reports indicated it could cruise at altitudes as low as 50 meters (about 160 feet) to avoid enemy radar.
Putin ordered Gerasimov to prepare the necessary facilities for deploying the Burevestnik and working out its modes of operation.
The Russian leader has described the weapon as a response to the U.S. missile shield that Washington has developed after its 2001 withdrawal from a Cold War-era U.S.-Soviet pact that limited missile defenses.
Russian military planners have feared that a missile shield could tempt Washington to launch a first strike that would knock out most of Moscow’s nuclear arsenal in hopes of intercepting a small number of surviving missiles fired in retaliation.
The Burevestnik, as well as the prospective Poseidon nuclear-powered and nuclear-armed drone with an intercontinental range that was also announced by Putin, were presented as means of guaranteed retaliation to a first strike.
Technological challenges and lingering risks
Unlike a conventional cruise missile powered by jet engines with a range limited by the fuel it can carry, a nuclear-powered cruise missile has a practically unlimited range and can loiter for days over the ocean before streaking to a target from a direction unprotected by missile defenses.
These unique capabilities involve massive technological challenges and potential radiation risks -– factors that prompted the U.S. to abandon a nuclear-powered missile project in the 1950s after viewing it as too unsafe for its own military personnel and allies.
Many Western experts have been highly skeptical about Russia’s ability to build such a missile, with some describing it as a “flying Chernobyl” due to radiation hazards.
A 2019 accident killed at least five nuclear engineers and injured several others in an explosion that the U.S. believed occurred when Russian experts tried to recover a Burevestnik prototype that had crashed into the White Sea during an earlier test. The local administration in a city near the site of explosion reported a brief rise in radiation levels.
Putin and Gerasimov didn’t say where the missile was tested Oct. 21, but on that day Russia closed off a large area around the Arctic Novaya Zemlya archipelago where previous tests of the Burevestnik had occurred, deploying vessels and aircraft linked to the program in the area.
The Norwegian Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority said no radiation spikes have been reported so far at any of its monitoring stations, the Barents Observer reported, an indication the Burevestnik designers could have managed to develop a design avoiding radioactive contamination.
Putin spoke about the missile with pride in televised comments. “When we announced that we were developing such a weapon, even highly qualified experts told me that it was a good and worthy goal, but undoable in the near future,” he said. “And now the decisive tests have been completed.”
Putin’s nuclear messaging and Trump’s response
Putin repeatedly has brandished Russia’s nuclear might since he launched the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, declaring that Moscow was prepared to use “all means” to protect its security interests. He again turned to nuclear messaging now as Trump has put a planned summit in Budapest with Putin on hold and declared his first major sanctions against Russia.
Hours after Trump’s announcement, Putin presided over the drills that involved all parts of Russia’s nuclear triad and featured practice launches of ground- and submarine-launched nuclear capable intercontinental ballistic missiles, as well as cruise missiles being fired by strategic bombers.
The televised images of Putin directing the nuclear exercise followed similar action by him throughout the nearly 4-year-old war. He repeatedly warned against Kyiv striking deeper into Russia with Western supplied weapons or deploying Western troops to Ukraine.
While declaring his readiness to keep talking to Trump about a prospective Ukrainian settlement, Putin also described the new U.S. sanctions against Russia’s top oil companies as an “unfriendly act” that would damage relations. He warned that Russia wouldn’t be intimidated.
“It’s an attempt to exert pressure on Russia, but no self-respecting country and self-respecting people make any decisions under pressure,” he said.
Putin also warned that any attempt by Ukraine to strike deep inside Russia with longer-range weapons supplied by the West will trigger a “very serious, if not to say stunning,” response from Moscow. Three days later, he donned military fatigues to receive a report on the Burevestnik’s successful test launch.
Trump responded Monday with irritation when asked about the test. “You’ve got to get the war ended, a war that should have taken one week is now in its soon fourth year. That’s what you ought to do, instead of testing missiles,” he said.
He added that “we have a nuclear submarine, the greatest in the world, right off their shores,” and so “we don’t need to go 8,000 miles.”
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Chris Megerian aboard Air Force One contributed.
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