Russian nuclear missile aimed at UK ‘ready by autumn’
RUSSIA’S new nuclear missile, which is capable of striking the UK and the US, will be ready to fire by the autumn, the head of Russia’s space programme said yesterday.
“In the autumn of this year, after the completion of flight design tests of the Sarmat, we plan to deliver heavy intercontinental ballistic missiles of this superweapon to the Strategic Missile Forces,” Dmitry Rogozin, head of Roscosmos, said on Russian TV.
After its test-firing on Wednesday, watched live by Vladimir Putin, the Kremlin had described the missile, dubbed the most dangerous weapon in the world, as a “present to Nato”.
The Sarmat has been dubbed “Satan2” by Western officials because it is a faster and more deadly replacement for a Soviet nuclear missile system known as “Satan”.
Mr Rogozin was deputy Prime Minister in 2011-18. He has inside knowledge of the Sarmat nuclear missile which Roscosmos, the Russian state agency that he heads, helped to build.
With a range of 12,000 miles and flying at five-times the speed of sound, the Sarmat carries up to 15 warheads and analysts have said that it could wipe out several British cities in one go.
“This is a superweapon that can calm any aggressor or a group of aggressors wherever they are,” said Mr Rogozin.
On his Telegram social media channel, Mr Rogozin also posted a new video of the Sarmat’s test firing.
Footage of the missile launch was set to bombastic music and included a cartoon of a missile flying across the world from Russia before releasing several nuclear warheads.
The video then cuts to a flame and ends with the slogan: “Sarmat: It doesn’t need a visa.”
However, analysts have said the autumn target is ambitious, given Russia only tested it this week. Western military experts say more work will be needed before it can be deployed. The weapon’s development has instead largely been seen as sabre rattling.
“That’s all they really have now and they’ve known that for a long time.
“You see the attitude of Russia towards its nuclear weapons and they love them,” said Ian Williams, a fellow in the International Security Program at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies.
The claim came as Russia stepped up its attacks in Ukraine, reportedly hitting a weapons depot in Odesa and trying to storm the steelworks in Mariupol, home to the last Ukrainian resistance.
Ukrainian officials said they had killed two more Russian generals in fighting around Kherson which, if confirmed, would bring the total killed since the start of the war to nine.
Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister, spoke to President Volodymyr Zelensky yesterday to confirm Britain will supply fresh weaponry to support Ukraine.
Mr Zelensky also announced that two of America’s top officials, defence secretary Lloyd Austin and secretary of state Antony Blinken, will meet him in Kyiv to discuss weapons shipments.