Donald Trump has described Vladimir Putin\u2019s announcement of a nuclear-powered cruise missile test as \u201cnot appropriate\u201d amid growing tensions between Moscow and Washington.<\/p>\n
Putin said on Sunday that Russia<\/a> had successfully tested its \u201cunique\u201d nuclear-capable Burevestnik cruise missile, which the Kremlin described as part of efforts to \u201censure the country\u2019s national security\u201d.<\/p>\n When asked on Monday by reporters onboard Air Force One about Russia\u2019s nuclear missile test, Trump said Putin should focus on ending the war with Ukraine<\/a> rather than testing missiles.<\/p>\n Trump said the US had a nuclear submarine \u201cright off their shores\u201d that did not need to travel such distances. \u201cWe test missiles all the time,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n A day earlier, wearing military fatigues at a meeting with Russia\u2019s top generals, Putin hailed the missile as a breakthrough.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is truly a unique weapon, one that no other country in the world possesses,\u201d he said, ordering preparations to build the infrastructure needed to bring the system into military service.<\/p>\n Russia\u2019s chief of the general staff, Valery Gerasimov, told Putin that the test had taken place on Tuesday, with the missile flying about 8,700 miles (14,000km) over 15 hours.<\/p>\n Valery Gerasimov, right, told Vladimir Putin of the test during a visit to an undisclosed command post in Russia on Sunday. Photograph: Russian Presidency\/Kremlin Pool\/Planet Pix\/Zuma Press Wire\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n Sergei Ryabkov, a close aide to Putin, told Russian media that Moscow had notified the US in advance about the planned missile test.<\/p>\n Putin first unveiled the \u201cinvincible\u201d Burevestnik in 2018, claiming it had an almost unlimited range and could evade US missile defences. \u201cNo one wanted to listen to us. So listen now,\u201d he said at the time.<\/p>\n The system made headlines in 2019<\/a> after a failed test in the Arctic caused an explosion<\/a> that killed at least five scientists.<\/p>\n Putin\u2019s boasts aside, experts have cast doubt on the missile\u2019s supposed invincibility.<\/p>\n \u201cRussia\u2019s nuclear-powered cruise missile Burevestnik isn\u2019t invincible \u2026 Nato aircraft could intercept it,\u201d Jeffrey Lewis, a nuclear nonproliferation expert at the Middlebury Institute, in Monterey, California, wrote on X. \u201cThe problem is that Burevestnik represents another step in an arms race that offers no victory for either side.\u201d<\/p>\n skip past newsletter promotion<\/a><\/p>\n Our US morning briefing breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what\u2019s happening and why it matters<\/p>\n Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain information about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. If you do not have an account, we will create a guest account for you on theguardian.com<\/a> to send you this newsletter. You can complete full registration at any time. For more information about how we use your data see our Privacy Policy<\/a>. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy<\/a> and Terms of Service<\/a> apply.<\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n Despite repeated statements from both Moscow and Washington about wanting to halt the arms race, little progress has been made. The Kremlin has recently criticised Trump\u2019s push to develop a missile shield \u2013 known as the Golden Dome<\/a> \u2013 which he claims<\/a> would make the US impervious to attack.<\/p>\n Last November, Moscow lowered the threshold for the use of nuclear weapons, a move widely seen as signalling its readiness to respond aggressively to perceived threats.<\/p>\n Soon after, Russia deployed its new nuclear-capable Oreshnik missile on the battlefield in Ukraine.<\/p>\n The timing of Russia\u2019s Burevestnik testing is notable, coming amid the Kremlin\u2019s intensified nuclear posturing and a break in US-Russia talks over the war in Ukraine.<\/p>\n Last week, Putin oversaw drills of Russia\u2019s strategic nuclear forces, which included practice missile launches. He also warned of a \u201cvery serious, if not crushing, response\u201d should Ukraine carry out further strikes deep inside Russian territory with western-supplied missiles.<\/p>\n The Burevestnik nuclear-powered cruise missile was first unveiled in 2018 when images of its production line were released. Photograph: Youtube<\/p>\n Russian state television on Sunday openly framed the drills as a warning to the west.<\/p>\n Sergei Karaganov, a hawkish and influential foreign policy analyst, said during a talkshow that the exercise amounted to \u201ca rehearsal for a first strike, intended as punishment or a warning in the event of further aggression against Russia\u201d.<\/p>\n Relations between Putin and Trump took a serious hit after the US administration announced surprise sanctions last Wednesday on two of Russia\u2019s largest oil producers and around three dozen of their subsidiaries \u2013 measures that could severely undermine Moscow\u2019s vital energy revenues.<\/p>\n Further irritation with Washington was evident in an interview over the weekend by Russia\u2019s veteran foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, who said the Trump administration\u2019s position on the war in Ukraine had \u201cradically changed\u201d.<\/p>\n In the interview with a Hungarian reporter, Lavrov criticised Trump\u2019s call for Russia and Ukraine to freeze the frontlines and agree to a ceasefire \u2013 an idea Moscow has rejected.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Donald Trump has described Vladimir Putin\u2019s announcement of a nuclear-powered cruise missile test as \u201cnot appropriate\u201d amid growing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":228459,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":{"0":"post-228458","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228458","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=228458"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228458\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/228459"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=228458"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=228458"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=228458"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}