Trump describes Russia’s new cruise missile test as ‘not appropriate’

Pjotr Sauer

Donald Trump has described Vladimir Putin’s announcement of a nuclear-powered cruise missile test as “not appropriate” amid growing tensions between Moscow and Washington.

Putin said on Sunday that Russia had successfully tested its “unique” nuclear-capable Burevestnik cruise missile, which the Kremlin described as part of efforts to “ensure the country’s national security”.

When asked on Monday by reporters onboard Air Force One about Russia’s nuclear missile test, Trump said Putin should focus on ending the war with Ukraine rather than testing missiles.

Trump said the US had a nuclear submarine “right off their shores” that did not need to travel such distances. “We test missiles all the time,” he added.

A day earlier, wearing military fatigues at a meeting with Russia’s top generals, Putin hailed the missile as a breakthrough.

“It is truly a unique weapon, one that no other country in the world possesses,” he said, ordering preparations to build the infrastructure needed to bring the system into military service.

Russia’s 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.

Sergei Ryabkov, a close aide to Putin, told Russian media that Moscow had notified the US in advance about the planned missile test.

Putin first unveiled the “invincible” Burevestnik in 2018, claiming it had an almost unlimited range and could evade US missile defences. “No one wanted to listen to us. So listen now,” he said at the time.

The system made headlines in 2019 after a failed test in the Arctic caused an explosion that killed at least five scientists.

Putin’s boasts aside, experts have cast doubt on the missile’s supposed invincibility.

“Russia’s nuclear-powered cruise missile Burevestnik isn’t invincible … Nato aircraft could intercept it,” Jeffrey Lewis, a nuclear nonproliferation expert at the Middlebury Institute, in Monterey, California, wrote on X. “The problem is that Burevestnik represents another step in an arms race that offers no victory for either side.”

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’s push to develop a missile shield – known as the Golden Dome – which he claims would make the US impervious to attack.

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.

Soon after, Russia deployed its new nuclear-capable Oreshnik missile on the battlefield in Ukraine.

The timing of Russia’s Burevestnik testing is notable, coming amid the Kremlin’s intensified nuclear posturing and a break in US-Russia talks over the war in Ukraine.

Last week, Putin oversaw drills of Russia’s strategic nuclear forces, which included practice missile launches. He also warned of a “very serious, if not crushing, response” should Ukraine carry out further strikes deep inside Russian territory with western-supplied missiles.

Russian state television on Sunday openly framed the drills as a warning to the west.

Sergei Karaganov, a hawkish and influential foreign policy analyst, said during a talkshow that the exercise amounted to “a rehearsal for a first strike, intended as punishment or a warning in the event of further aggression against Russia”.

Relations between Putin and Trump took a serious hit after the US administration announced surprise sanctions last Wednesday on two of Russia’s largest oil producers and around three dozen of their subsidiaries – measures that could severely undermine Moscow’s vital energy revenues.

Further irritation with Washington was evident in an interview over the weekend by Russia’s veteran foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, who said the Trump administration’s position on the war in Ukraine had “radically changed”.

In the interview with a Hungarian reporter, Lavrov criticised Trump’s call for Russia and Ukraine to freeze the frontlines and agree to a ceasefire – an idea Moscow has rejected.