ISTANBUL
Russia on Sunday said it had completed the testing of its new nuclear-powered cruise missile, Burevestnik, as President Vladimir Putin met top military officials.
The “decisive tests” were declared completed during Putin’s visit to a command post at an undisclosed location, where Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov briefed him on the frontline situation in Ukraine. A video of the briefing was published by the Kremlin.
According to Gerasimov, the missile’s most recent test on Oct. 21 saw it fly for about 15 hours covering a distance of 14,000 kilometers (8,700 miles).
This is not the limit, Gerasimov told Putin, with the latter expressing that they need to determine the class of the weapon, as well as its possible uses, and begin preparing the infrastructure for its deployment.
Commenting on the exercises by Russia’s strategic forces, Putin said the latest drills “confirmed the reliability of Russia's nuclear shield.”
“The strategic forces are capable of fully ensuring the national security of the Russian Federation and the Union State (of Russia and Belarus), as we have already discussed,” Putin added.
The Russian president described the Burevestnik, whose development was first announced in 2018, as “unique” and possessing “unlimited range.”
The completion of the tests comes as US President Donald Trump seemed to dismiss the possibility of supplying long-range Tomahawk cruise missiles to Kyiv, saying that the weapons are "complex" for Ukrainian forces to operate without extensive US training.
Putin has previously voiced concern about the US sending Tomahawks to Ukraine, warning that it would "destroy" US-Russian relations and lead to a "completely new, qualitatively new stage of escalation."
Despite mediation from Trump, peace talks between Moscow and Kyiv have largely stalled, and the EU and the US imposed additional sanctions on Russia this week. Putin argued these sanctions will not have significant effect on the well-being of the Russian economy.