Russia is moving to make its terrifying Sarmat missile system – also known as the Satan II – “combat ready”.
Russian Strategic Missile Forces Commander, Colonel General Sergey Karakaye,v said that his forces had 88% of Russia’s modern missile hardware in their operational inventory, state media reported.
He said: “As of today, fifth-generation Yars and Avangard missile systems have been introduced in the Strategic Missile Forces.
“Work continues on placing the newest silo-based Sarmat missile system with a liquid-fueled super-heavy missile on combat duty.”
The RS-28 Sarmat is a superheavy intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) that can carry up to 16 nuclear warheads. Its range is around 11,000 miles, meaning it can easily strike targets in the US and Europe.
However, its development has been marred by setbacks. Most recently, a Sarmat II exploded on the launch pad during a test in September after a “catastrophic failure”, leaving a smouldering crater at the launch site in northern Russia.
The move to get the missiles “combat ready” comes after Putin signed a decree allowing Russian nuclear weapons to be deployed against a non-nuclear force if it was backed up by a nuclear-armed nation – for example, Ukraine backed by the United Kingdom.
The decree was signed as Ukraine launched attacks on Russia using US-supplied ATACMS and British-made Storm Shadow missiles to devastating effect, enraging Russian leadership.
Amid heightened tensions, Ukraine claimed to have killed or injured 1,580 Russian soldiers on Tuesday, just hours after Vladimir Putin’s forces launched a massive drone attack believed to have been the largest of the war so far.
Kyiv’s General Staff also claimed that Ukraine had destroyed 14 Russian tanks, 48 armoured vehicles and an air defence system.
The Ukrainian Air Force said Tuesday that Russia launched 188 drones against most regions of Ukraine in a nighttime blitz. It described it as a record number of drones deployed in a single attack.
According to the Air Force, most drones were intercepted, but apartment buildings and critical infrastructure, such as the national power grid, were damaged. No casualties were immediately reported in the 17 targeted regions.
Russia has been hammering civilian areas of Ukraine with increasingly heavy drone, missile and glide bomb attacks since the middle of the year.
At the same time, Russia’s army has largely held the battlefield initiative for the past year. It has been pushing hard in the eastern Donetsk region, where it is making significant tactical advances, according to Western military analysts.