Russia has tested a new nuclear-capable and powered cruise missile fit to confound existing defences, inching closer to deploying it in combat, president Vladimir Putin has said.
In a video released by the Kremlin on Sunday, Mr Putin, dressed in camouflage fatigues, could be seen meeting with senior Russian military figures.
The footage showed Gen Valery Gerasimov, Russia’s chief of general staff, telling Mr Putin that the Burevestnik missile covered 14,000km (8,700 miles) in a key test on Tuesday.
Gen Gerasimov said the Burevestnik, or Storm Petrel in Russian, spent 15 hours in the air, adding “that’s not the limit”.
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Mr Putin then told the general: “We need to determine the possible uses and begin preparing the infrastructure for deploying these weapons to our armed forces.”
Mr Putin also claimed the missile was invulnerable to current and future missile defences, due to its almost unlimited range and unpredictable flight path.
On Wednesday, Mr Putin directed drills of Russia’s strategic nuclear forces that featured practice missile launches. The exercise came as his planned summit on Ukraine with US president Donald Trump was put on hold.
The Kremlin said the drills involved all parts of Moscow’s nuclear triad, including intercontinental ballistic missiles that were test-fired from launch facilities in north-western Russia and a submarine in the Barents Sea. The drills also involved Tu-95 strategic bombers firing long-range cruise missiles.
The exercise tested the skills of military command structures, the Kremlin said in a statement on Wednesday.
A Russian drone attack on Ukraine’s capital killed three people in their homes, Ukrainian authorities said on Sunday.
At least 29 people were injured, seven of them children, overnight into Sunday, in what was the second consecutive night-time attack on Kyiv to claim civilian lives.
Ukraine’s interior minister, Ihor Klymenko, said a 19-year-old woman and her 46-year-old mother were among those killed.
Russian drones caused fires in two residential buildings in the capital’s Desnianskyi district. Emergency crews evacuated civilians from a nine-storey building and a 16-storey complex, put out flames and cleared the rubble.
Olha Yevhenivha (74) said there was so much smoke from the fire she could not leave her apartment.
“Even until now our windows are totally black from the smoke, and it was impossible to go down, so that’s why we put wet blankets on our doors and balcony,” she said.
Russia attacked Ukraine with 101 drones overnight into Sunday, according to Ukraine’s air force, of which 90 were shot down and neutralised by Ukrainian forces.
However, five strike drones hit four locations. Debris from shot-down drones fell on five locations, the statement added.
The attack came a day after a mass Russian missile and drone attack killed four people, including two in the capital, prompting fresh pleas from Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskiy for Western air defence systems. – AP
