Russia claims it tested 'unique' Burevestnik nuclear-capable missile

Russia tested a new nuclear-capable and powered cruise missile fit to confound existing defences, inching closer to deploying it to its military, President Vladimir Putin said in remarks released on Sunday.

The footage released by the Kremlin showed Putin in military fatigues receiving the report on the missile from Russian Army Chief of Staff Valery Gerasimov.

Gerasimov reportedly said the missile remained in the air for about 15 hours and covered 14,000 kilometres, adding that "this is not the attainable limit". No further details are known at this time.

The announcement comes as part of nuclear messaging from the Kremlin, which has resisted Western pressure for a ceasefire in Ukraine and strongly warned the US and other NATO allies against sanctioning strikes deep inside Russia with longer-range Western weapons.

Putin said the Burevestnik, code-named Skyfall by NATO, is "unlike any other in the world."

“We need to determine the possible uses and begin preparing the infrastructure for deploying these weapons to our armed forces,” Putin told Gerasimov.

What we know about the Burevestnik missile

Little is known about the Burevestnik, meaning storm petrel in Russian, and many Western experts have been sceptical about it, noting that its nuclear-powered engine could be highly unreliable.

When Putin first revealed that Russia was working on the weapon in his 2018 state-of-the-nation address, he claimed it would have an unlimited range, allowing it to circle the globe undetected by missile defence systems.

The Russian leader also claimed it was invulnerable to current and future missile defences, due to its almost unlimited range and unpredictable flight path.

British intelligence has previously described it as a nuclear-powered subsonic cruise missile system with a global range and almost indefinite in-flight time, capable of attacking from unexpected directions.

However, many observers argue that such a missile could be challenging to handle and pose an environmental threat.

The US and the Soviet Union worked on nuclear-powered missiles during the Cold War, but they eventually shelved the projects, considering them too hazardous.

The development of the Burevestnik began after the US withdrew from the 1972 Ballistic Missile Treaty in December 2001, Russian state-run news agency Tass reported.

The Burevestnik reportedly suffered an explosion in August 2019 during tests at a navy range on the White Sea, killing five nuclear engineers and two service members and resulting in a brief spike in radioactivity that fueled fears in a nearby city.

Russian officials never identified the weapon involved, but the US said it was the Burevestnik.

Kirill Dmitriev, a top Putin aide who was in the US when the video surfaced, said his delegation informed US colleagues of the “successful testing” of the Burevestnik, which he described as an “absolutely new class” of weapon.