Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday oversaw the first test-launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile that he said would make those threatening his country “think twice," in his latest nuclear saber-rattling since launching his war in Ukraine.
Since sending Russian troops into the neighboring country in late February, Mr. Putin has repeatedly raised the threat of nuclear war in an effort to deter the U.S. and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization from getting involved in the conflict.
The Russian Defense Ministry said the test-launch was the first in the testing program and analysts said it could likely not be deployed for use in the near future.
The ministry announced Wednesday afternoon it had successfully launched the RS-28 Sarmat system, a heavy intercontinental missile that the ministry said could hit targets anywhere in the world and evade any existing and future antimissile defense systems.
“This truly unique weapon will force all who are trying to threaten our country in the heat of frenzied, aggressive rhetoric to think twice," Mr. Putin said in televised comments.
The Russian president, who was shown overseeing the launch by videoconference from the Kremlin, added that the Sarmat missile was made using only domestic components. U.S. sanctions have targeted companies producing parts for the Russian military.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said the Sarmat had been launched Wednesday from the Plesetsk cosmodrome in the northern Arkhangelsk region and struck a target on the Kamchatka peninsula some 3,500 miles to the east.
The test-launch has long been expected since Mr. Putin first announced Russia had developed the missile in 2018, but the launch has been delayed several times. A senior U.S. defense official said Moscow notified Washington in advance of the flight test through arms control procedures.
As the Russian military has faced fierce resistance from Ukrainian forces buttressed by enforcements of Western weaponry, concerns have grown in the West that Russia could consider using a so-called tactical nuclear weapon to turn the tide in its favor.
Several days ahead of the invasion, Mr. Putin led an exercise of Russia’s strategic forces, launching some of the country’s most cutting-edge missiles. The Sarmat missile was expected to be launched at that training.
At the start of the war, Mr. Putin warned of consequences “the likes of which you have never seen in history" if the West intervened.
“The Russian leadership’s rhetoric in the nuclear sphere has one main goal: constantly sending a reminder that there can be no military solution to the Russia problem and to not even try something," said Dmitry Stefanovich, a research fellow at the Moscow-based IMEMO RAS think tank.
He added that the message has been received in Western capitals.
“All the commentary from Brussels and Washington understandably blames Russia for escalation, but they underscore each time that they have no interest in going into armed conflict directly between the U.S. and Russia, NATO and Russia," Mr. Stefanovich said.
Nikolai Sokov, a senior fellow at the Vienna Center for Disarmament and Non-Proliferation, said that while the launch of the Sarmat was expected, Russia could have delayed it to avoid escalating tensions, similar to how the U.S. put off a routine test of its Air Force Minuteman III missile last month.
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Instead, the Russians used the launch “as a good reminder to say: ‘We have nuclear weapons, so you sit there quietly,’" Mr. Sokov said. “The rocket was ready and they milked it a little."
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