Russia tests missile capable of 'deploying multiple nuclear warheads': report

Russia's Ministry of Defense has announced the country's successful successfully launched an "advanced" intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), Newsweek reports.

Per The Moscow Times, the missile was launched "from its Kapustin Yar test site on Tuesday."

Managing editor of Special Operations Forces Report (SOFREP), Guy McCardle, told Newsweek"calling ICBMs 'advanced' is unnecessary since such missiles are advanced in nature, 'or they would not be able to accomplish the 'intercontinental' part."

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Earlier this year, The Moscow Times reports, Russia President Vladimir "Putin said a new kind of ICBM would be deployed sometime this year, following U.S. reports that the weapon had failed a recent test," adding, "The Sarmat — dubbed 'Satan 2' by Western analysts — is capable of carrying multiple nuclear warheads and is among Russia's next-generation missiles that Putin has described as 'invincible.'"

Newsweek reports:

Over the past year, Russia has reportedly tested a missile known as the RS-28 Sarmat, which has been dubbed 'Satan II' by media outlets because it will replace another ICBM known as 'Satan.' Though not confirmed, there has been online speculation that a Sarmat may have been the missile tested in Kapustin Yar.

Tuesday's launch comes after Putin announced last month "he would station tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus," and after recently pulling out of the New START treaty, which is "the last remaining nuclear arms control pact it had with the United States" according to Newsweek.

North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, said Putin's decision to bow out of the agreement is a sign "he's preparing for more war," Newsweek reports.

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Similarly, McCardle added that his guess is that Putin "wants to remind us that he still has the power to reach out and destroy entire cities anywhere on the planet if he feels like it."

According to Newsweek, Sky News reports the missile launch as the "first successful public test" of such a weapon by Moscow since Putin's withdrawal from the treaty.

Russian media outlet TASS described the launch as a means to "test advanced combat equipment of intercontinental ballistic missiles," but did not provide the type of missile used.

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Newsweek's full report is available at this link. The Moscow Times' report is here.