As the battles of the Ukraine war unfold, Russian President Vladimir Putin has once again played the nuclear card in his dispute with the West.
This Wednesday (20th) he announced the first full test of the country’s new ICBM for deploying nuclear warheads, the RS28 Sarmat, known in NATO, the western military alliance, as the Satan2. It is the most powerful weapon of its kind in the world.
“This truly unique weapon will increase the combat potential of our armed forces, reliably guarantee Russia’s security against external threats and make those who, in the heat of aggressive rhetoric, try to threaten our country think twice,” he said in a televised conversation with Defense Ministry officials .
The test comes amid the start of the Donbass battle for control of the Russianspeaking region of eastern Ukraine, almost two months into the war. During this period, Putin suffered setbacks, supporting a broad but uncoordinated attack on multiple fronts and failing to encircle Kyiv.
war in Ukraine
It was more successful in the south and east, where it is now concentrating its forces. However, the reputation of the Russian military, which has undergone a major modernization of tactics and equipment since the nearfiasco defeat of Georgia in 2008, has been badly damaged.
Adding to criticism from abroad is growing military support for Kiev from the West, which has already helped avoid an initial defeat in the war. Socalled red lines, in order not to bring the Russians into conflict with NATO, such as the delivery of antiaircraft batteries, are tested week after week.
Thus, the nuclear joker always remains in the deck. Analysts and politicians are speculating whether Putin could use a weak, tactical weapon against a Ukrainian target or even in a show of force over the Black Sea or the Baltic should his military situation deteriorate.
The message at Sarmat, however, is different. It is a reminder that Russia is the largest global nuclear power alongside the United States, with both accounting for about 90% of the world’s nuclear warheads.
The US did not issue a receipt. According to the Pentagon, Moscow had informed the US about the test, as required by the New Start arms control treaty. “We don’t see it as a threat,” Defense Department spokesman John Kirby said.
Putin has been using this rhetoric since the eve of the February 24 invasion. Five days earlier, it tested its nuclear forces, firing hypersonic missiles, intermediate ballistic missiles and an RS24 Iars, an already operational intercontinental model, from a submarine in the Arctic.
On the day of the attack, he threatened foreign forces to intervene in the confrontation with nuclear retaliation. And soon after the war began, it put its nuclear forces on standby, triggering alarms in the West. Between those who only see bluffs and those who really care, there is a mix of both assessments.
Here and there politicians raise the issue when they speculate about the spread of the war. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky himself has cited Putin’s possible use of nuclear weapons. World War III, an outdated threat since the end of the Cold War in 1991, is back on the agenda.
Launched from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome near the Finnish border, Sarmat flew some 6,000 km to reach the Kura test site on the Kamchatka Peninsula in the Pacific. It has been in development since 2009 and began ignition and launch testing in 2018.
The rocket, named after the former Eurasian empire of Sarmatia, is an estimated 208ton monster measuring 35.5 meters in length. According to analysts, it is capable of carrying perhaps 15 nuclear warheads to targets up to 11,000 miles away, or an unspecified number of Avangard hypersonic gliders already in service with older missiles.
In 2019, the Russian government leaked information that Sarmat could make a 35,000kilometer suborbital flight, something unprecedented, and that would literally guarantee full global coverage from silos in Russia. According to the Defense Ministry, a regiment is already being equipped with the missile in Krasnoyarsk, Siberia, perhaps by the end of the year if testing goes well.
The Sarmat is one of the “invincible weapons” announced by Putin in 2018, attracting less attention than the Kinjal hypersonic systems and Avangard already deployed in Ukraine, as it is an evolution of a wellknown technology. But when it’s operational, it’s going to be one of the most fearsome weapons out there.
Unlike tactical bombs of tens of kilotons (Hiroshima had 15 kilotons), it can theoretically carry anything from multiple warheads of hundreds of kilotons to a few in the megaton range, strategic weapons for apocalyptic scenarios.