Putin says Russia to deploy Sarmat nuclear missiles

A year since ordering the invasion of Ukraine, Putin has signaled he is ready to rip up the architecture of nuclear arms control - including the big powers' moratorium on nuclear testing - unless the West backs off in Ukraine.

Putin on Tuesday sought to underscore Russian resolve in Ukraine by suspending a landmark nuclear arms control treaty, announcing new strategic systems had been put on combat duty and warning that Moscow could resume nuclear tests.

In an address to mark "Defender of the Fatherland" public holiday, known in Soviet times as Red Army Day, Putin invoked the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany to argue that Russia needed modernized armed forces to guarantee its sovereignty.

"As before, we will pay increased attention to strengthening the nuclear triad," Putin said, referring to nuclear missiles based on land, sea and in the air, in an address broadcast on state television.

Putin, who casts the conflict in Ukraine as an existential struggle to defend Russia against what he sees as an arrogant and aggressive West, said the Sarmat silo-based intercontinental ballistic missiles would be deployed this year.

The RS-28 Sarmat liquid-fueled missile, nicknamed "Satan 2", was first announced by Putin in 2018. The missiles were supposed to have been deployed last year.

CNN reported that the United States believes Russia carried out a test of the Sarmat just before US President Joe Biden visited Ukraine earlier this week but that the test failed. The Russian defense ministry has not commented on that report.

REUTERS