US President Donald Trump says he does not think it is “appropriate” for Vladimir Putin to be testing missiles, after Russia successfully tested its nuclear-powered Burevestnik cruise missile.<\/p>\n
The Russian president announced on Sunday Russia would now move towards deploying the weapon, which Moscow says can pierce any defence shield.<\/p>\n
Russia said the 9M730 Burevestnik “Storm Petrel” \u2014 dubbed the SSC-X-9 Skyfall by NATO \u2014 was “invincible” to current and future missile defences, with an almost unlimited range and unpredictable flight path.<\/p>\n
“It is a unique ware which nobody else in the world has,” Mr Putin said, dressed in camouflage fatigues at a meeting with generals overseeing the war in Ukraine in remarks released by the Kremlin on Sunday, local time.<\/p>\n
“We need to determine the possible uses and begin preparing the infrastructure for deploying these weapons to our armed forces.”<\/p>\n
In response, Mr Trump told reporters the US did not need a similar missile to strike Russia because of America’s nuclear submarine capabilities.<\/p>\n
“They know we have a nuclear submarine, the greatest in the world, right off their shores, so I mean, it doesn’t have to go 8,000 miles,” he said, according to an audio file released by the White House.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“I don’t think it’s an appropriate thing for Putin to be saying, either, by the way: You ought to get the war ended, the war that should have taken one week is now in \u2026 its fourth year, that’s what you ought to do instead of testing missiles.”<\/p>\n
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The Burevestnik cruise missile in a Russian facility in 2018. (Supplied: Russian Ministry of Defence)<\/p>\n
In response to Mr Trump’s remarks, a Kremlin spokesperson said Russia would be guided by its own interests and that the country saw no reason why the test would harm relations with the White House.<\/p>\n
Russia’s chief of the General Staff of Russia’s Armed Forces, Valery Gerasimov, told Mr Putin that the missile travelled 14,000 kilometres and was in the air for about 15 hours when it was tested on October 21.<\/p>\n
Since first announcing the 9M730 Burevestnik in 2018, Mr Putin has cast the weapon as a response to moves by the United States to build a missile defence shield after Washington in 2001 unilaterally withdrew from the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty.<\/p>\n
Mr Putin said that he had once been told by Russian specialists that the weapon was unlikely to ever be possible.<\/p>\n
But now, he said, its “crucial testing” had concluded.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Chief of the General Staff of Russian Armed Forces, Valery Gerasimov, said the test was successful. (Reuters: Kremlin.ru\/Handout)<\/p>\n
The Russian president said the test sent a message that Russia would never bow to pressure from the West over the war in Ukraine.<\/p>\n
The White House has not yet commented on the Russian missile test.<\/p>\n
Putin signals to Washington<\/p>\n
For US President Donald Trump, who has cast Russia as a “paper tiger”<\/a> for failing to swiftly subdue Ukraine, the message is that Russia remains a global military competitor, especially on nuclear weapons.<\/p>\n The Russian leader’s message for the broader West, after the United States moved to provide Ukraine with intelligence on long-range energy infrastructure targets in Russia<\/a>, is that Moscow can strike back if it wants to.<\/p>\n Last week Mr Putin said if Russia was attacked, the response would be “very serious, if not overwhelming”.<\/p>\n