Putin Says Russia’s ‘Satan II’ Nuclear Missile Passes Test, Set For Deployment By Year’s End

by Emmitt Barry, Worthy News Washington D.C. Bureau Chief

(Worthy News) – Russian President Vladimir Putin announced Tuesday that Russia had successfully test-fired its new Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missile — nicknamed “Satan II” by NATO — declaring it the most powerful missile in the world and saying it would enter combat service by the end of 2026.

The Sarmat is designed to replace Russia’s aging Soviet-era Voyevoda missiles, a heavy ICBM system long considered one of the most formidable components of Moscow’s nuclear arsenal. Putin said the new missile carries individually targeted warheads with a combined destructive power more than four times greater than any Western counterpart, though Western analysts have cautioned that some of Russia’s claims about its newest strategic weapons may be exaggerated.

“This is the most powerful missile in the world,” Putin declared, presenting the test as a major milestone in Russia’s long-running effort to modernize its nuclear triad of land-based missiles, nuclear submarines and strategic bombers.

Moscow says the Sarmat is capable of suborbital flight, giving it a range of more than 35,000 kilometers, or roughly 21,700 miles, and allowing it to approach targets from unexpected directions in an effort to bypass current and future missile-defense systems. Russian officials also claim the missile is more precise than the Voyevoda while retaining comparable destructive power.

The announcement comes at a dangerous moment for global security. The last remaining nuclear arms-control agreement between the United States and Russia expired in February, leaving the world’s two largest nuclear powers without formal caps on their strategic arsenals for the first time in more than half a century.

Putin has repeatedly invoked Russia’s nuclear capabilities since ordering the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, using Moscow’s strategic arsenal as a warning to the West against deeper military involvement in the conflict. His latest missile announcement came just days after he claimed the war in Ukraine was nearing an end.

The Sarmat program, however, has had a troubled development history. Work on the missile began in 2011, and before Tuesday’s launch it had only one publicly known successful test. Western experts said a failed 2024 test caused a major explosion and left a crater at the launch site.

Putin first unveiled the Sarmat in 2018 as part of a new generation of Russian strategic weapons that he said would render U.S. missile defenses ineffective. Other systems in that portfolio include the Avangard hypersonic glide vehicle, the Oreshnik intermediate-range ballistic missile, the Poseidon nuclear-powered underwater drone and the Burevestnik nuclear-powered cruise missile.

Putin also said Russia is in the “final stages” of developing the Poseidon underwater drone and the Burevestnik cruise missile. The Poseidon is designed to detonate near enemy coastlines and trigger a radioactive tsunami, while the Burevestnik is powered by a miniature nuclear reactor that Moscow claims gives it virtually unlimited range.

Russian officials argue the weapons are a response to U.S. missile-defense development after Washington withdrew in 2001 from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, a Cold War-era agreement that had limited missile-defense systems. Moscow has long claimed that an American missile shield could undermine strategic parity by giving Washington confidence it could survive a nuclear exchange.

“We were forced to consider ensuring our strategic security in the face of the new reality and the need to maintain a strategic balance of power and parity,” Putin said.

The latest test is likely to deepen Western concerns about a renewed nuclear arms race, especially as Russia’s war in Ukraine continues and diplomatic channels between Moscow and Washington remain strained.

For the West, the Sarmat launch is not merely a weapons test. It is a warning shot from a Kremlin determined to remind the world that, even amid battlefield losses, economic pressure and diplomatic isolation, Russia still possesses one of the most dangerous nuclear arsenals on earth.

For believers watching world events unfold, the moment is another sobering reminder that nations may boast in weapons, alliances and power, but ultimate security does not rest in missiles or military might. Scripture warns that in the last days there will be “wars and rumors of wars,” yet also reminds the faithful not to be shaken. The Lord remains sovereign over kings, kingdoms and history itself.

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