Moscow: The Russian military said Wednesday it successfully performed the first test of a new intercontinental ballistic missile, a weapon President Vladimir Putin said would make the West “think twice” before harbouring any aggressive intentions against Russia. The test launch of the Sarmat missile comes amid soaring tensions between Moscow and the West over the Russian military action in Ukraine and underlines the Kremlin’s emphasis on the country’s nuclear forces. Russia’s Defense Ministry said the Sarmat ICBM was launched Wednesday from the Plesetsk launch facility in northern Russia and its practice warheads have successfully reached mock targets on the Kura firing range on the far eastern Kamchatka Peninsula. It said the launch was fully successful, proving the missile’s characteristics “in all phases of its flight.” Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said that Russia had given the U.S. an advance notice about the launch in line with the New START nuclear arms control treaty between Moscow and Washington.
“Russia properly notified the United States under its New START obligations that it planned to test this ICBM,” he said. “Such testing is routine. It was not a surprise. We did not deem the test to be a threat to the United States or its allies.” Speaking to senior officials, Putin hailed the Sarmat launch, claiming that the new missile has no foreign analogues and is capable of penetrating any prospective missile defence. “This really unique weapon will strengthen the combat potential of our armed forces, reliably ensure Russia’s security from external threats and make those, who in the heat of frantic aggressive rhetoric try to threaten our country, think twice,” Putin said.
Read:Wimbledon bans players from Russia, Belarus over Ukraine war
Amid the new Western sanctions that banned the exports of high-tech products to Russia and specifically targeted its arms industries in response to Moscow’s action in Ukraine, Putin emphasized that the Sarmat is built exclusively from domestic components “Of course, this will simplify the serial production of the system by enterprises of the military-industrial sector and accelerate its delivery to the Strategic Missile Forces,” he added.