Putin says Russia will deploy ‘Satan 2’ Sarmat nuclear missiles – boost land, sea, air forces
- A year since invading Ukraine, Putin announces new strategic systems to strengthen ‘the nuclear triad’, unless the West backs off
- RS-28 Sarmat liquid-fuelled missile, nicknamed ‘Satan 2’, was revealed by Putin in 2018, and was supposed to have been deployed last year
President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that Russia would pay increased attention to boosting its nuclear forces by deploying a much delayed new intercontinental ballistic missile, rolling out hypersonic missiles and adding new nuclear submarines.
A year since ordering the invasion of Ukraine, Putin has signalled he is ready to rip up the architecture of nuclear arms control – including the big powers’ moratorium on nuclear testing – unless the West backs off in Ukraine.
Putin on Tuesday sought to underscore Russian resolve in Ukraine by suspending a landmark nuclear arms control treaty, announcing new strategic systems had been put on combat duty and warning that Moscow could resume nuclear tests.
In an address to mark the “Defender of the Fatherland” public holiday, known in Soviet times as Red Army Day, Putin invoked the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany to argue that Russia needed modernised armed forces to guarantee its sovereignty.
“As before, we will pay increased attention to strengthening the nuclear triad,” Putin said, referring to nuclear missiles based on land, sea and in the air, in an address broadcast on state television.
Putin, who casts the conflict in Ukraine as an existential struggle to defend Russia against what he sees as an arrogant and aggressive West, said the Sarmat silo-based intercontinental ballistic missiles would be deployed this year.
