Russia has issued a chilling nuclear warning to the West as Vladimir Putin put his Satan II nuclear missiles on “combat duty”, according to Moscow’s space agency.
The Sarmat, or Satan II, missile is a behemoth nuclear weapon capable of carrying up to 15 warheads across the globe. The weapon can also carry up to 24 Russian Avangard hypersonic glide vehicles, each capable of carrying a nuclear war head 27 times the speed of sound.
The super heavy intercontinental ballistic missiles can reach the UK – 1,600 miles from where they are stationed – in just six minutes.
With a range of about 11,000 miles, strategic targets in the US such as New York or Washington DC are well within range. “The Sarmat strategic complex has been put on combat duty,” the head of the Russian space agency Yuri Borisov told a group of students earlier today.
The terrifying missiles were slated to become operational at the end of 2022, however this was delayed for unknown reasons.
Last year, Vladimir Putin said: “In the near future, Sarmat ICBMs will be put on combat duty for the first time.
“We know there will be a certain delay in time but this does not change our plans – everything will be done.”
The news of the missile’s readiness comes as Russian propagandists increasingly call for nuclear war with the West over their support for Ukraine.
Russian talk show host and hardliner Vladimir Solovyov urged a nuclear strike on Ukraine after Kyiv appeared to make a small breakthrough.
For months, Putin’s right-hand man and former Russian President Dmitri Medvedev has been making threats of nuclear war against NATO.
In 2022, the Federation of American Scientist estimated that Russia possesses around 6,000 nuclear warheads of various sizes.
Around 1,600 of their strategic warheads – which would likely be used against cities and other large targets during a war – were deployed.
