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The footage released by the Russian Ministry of Defense shows the test of the Bulava missile
Photo: Russian Defence Ministry / ITAR-TASS / IMAGO
A few days after withdrawing from the international treaty banning nuclear tests, Russia says it has tested an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of being equipped with nuclear warheads.
The missile was launched underwater from the White Sea by the new nuclear submarine "Tsar Alexander III" and hit a training ground thousands of kilometers away on the Far Eastern peninsula of Kamchatka, the ministry announced on Sunday in Moscow. This is the first test of a Bulava missile in more than a year.
Range of 8000 kilometers
The twelve-meter-long Bulava missiles, codenamed SS-NX-30, have a range of 8000,16 kilometers and are at the heart of Russia's nuclear strategy. According to the Russian army, the strategic submarine "Imperator Alexander III" is equipped with <> Bulava missiles.
This is the final stage in the testing of this new strategic nuclear submarine of the Borej-A-class, it said. Everything went according to plan. So far, three of these cruisers are in service, one is undergoing tests, and three more are being built, the ministry said. Russia had completed a similar test a year ago with the nuclear submarine "Generalissimo Suvorov".
Since the start of the Ukraine war in February 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly used aggressive rhetoric on nuclear weapons from a Western point of view. In the summer of 2023, Moscow transferred tactical nuclear weapons to the territory of its ally Belarus, whose territory borders several NATO and EU states.
Putin sealed the withdrawal from the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) on Thursday by signing a corresponding law. On Friday, however, the Russian Foreign Ministry declared that it would continue to refrain from nuclear weapons tests.
wbr/dpa/AFP