Vladimir Putin has announced that Russia’s RS-28 Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missile — known in Western military circles as “Satan II” — will be placed on active combat duty before the end of this year, following what Moscow is calling a successful test launch. The announcement, made directly by Putin, has drawn global attention and reignited concerns about the escalating nuclear posture Russia has been projecting throughout its ongoing war in Ukraine.
The Sarmat missile is no small feat of engineering — at least on paper. According to the Missile Defense Advocacy Alliance, a US-based nonprofit, the weapon boasts an expected range of over 10,000 kilometres and can carry up to 16 independently targeted nuclear warheads. Putin himself claims the missile’s range stretches beyond 35,000 kilometres, and that its combined payload yield is more than four times greater than any comparable Western missile currently in existence.
To put that into perspective, the United States’ primary land-based nuclear deterrent — the LGM-30 Minuteman ICBM — has a range of roughly 11,000 kilometres and is currently deployed with just a single warhead, despite being designed to carry three. The gap in raw destructive potential, if Russia’s figures are to be believed, is staggering.
Russian state television broadcast footage of Sergei Karakayev, commander of Russia’s Strategic Missile Forces, reporting directly to Putin via video link, confirming what he described as a “successful” test. The visual of that moment — a general reporting to his president on the readiness of the world’s most powerful nuclear weapon — was clearly intended for a global audience.
Russia’s Satan II missile edges closer to deployment amid a history of delays and failed tests
The RS-28 Sarmat, which has been in development since 2011, has had a troubled road to this point. The Centre for Strategic and International Studies notes it was originally slated for deployment as far back as 2018, a deadline that came and went without fanfare. Then, in September 2024, a test went badly wrong — satellite imagery revealed a crater approximately 200 feet wide at the Plesetsk Cosmodrome launch site in Russia’s northwestern Arkhangelsk region. That failure was an embarrassment Moscow would rather forget.
Independent Russian Telegram channel Astra — ironically labelled a foreign agent by Russian authorities — was quick to inject some scepticism into Tuesday’s triumphant announcement. The channel pointed out that Putin has publicly declared the Sarmat nearly ready for deployment at least ten times since 2021. That’s a pattern worth noting.
There are also technical limitations that analysts have flagged. The Sarmat is liquid-fuelled, which means it must be fuelled shortly before launch — a significant operational disadvantage when compared to solid-fuelled missiles that can be fired at a moment’s notice.
Still, the broader nuclear picture demands serious consideration. Russia holds the world’s largest nuclear arsenal, with more than 5,500 warheads according to the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons. The United States, by comparison, has just over 5,000. The Satan II, if fully operational, would add a fearsome new dimension to that already formidable stockpile.
The timing of Tuesday’s test is impossible to ignore. It comes just days after Russia’s Victory Day Parade on 9 May — a commemoration of the Soviet Union’s role in defeating Nazi Germany — which was notably the most scaled-back since 2008. For the first time in nearly two decades, no military hardware was displayed. Russian authorities attributed the decision to security concerns following Ukrainian drone and missile strikes deep inside Russian territory, particularly targeting oil refineries.
Putin, ever the spin doctor, told journalists the parade was stripped of its usual weapons showcase because Russian forces needed to remain focused on “the decisive defeat of the enemy” in what the Kremlin still insists on calling its “special military operation.” Giant screens in Red Square broadcast pre-produced frontline footage instead — a far cry from the thundering tanks and missile launchers that have long been the parade’s centrepiece.
In a softer piece of Kremlin image management, footage was also released showing Putin personally driving to collect his elderly former schoolteacher, Vera Gurevich, from a Moscow hotel — arriving with flowers and a warm embrace before whisking her off to dinner at the Kremlin. She had been invited to attend the Victory Day celebrations. It was a carefully orchestrated moment of warmth, released at the same time the Kremlin was dismissing a European intelligence report — obtained by multiple major outlets — claiming that Putin has dramatically tightened his personal security detail and reduced the number of locations he regularly visits.
Whether the Satan II missile truly represents the game-changing weapon Putin claims, or whether this is another chapter in a long history of overpromised deliverables, remains to be seen. What is clear is that Moscow is using every tool at its disposal — military, media, and symbolic — to project strength at a moment when the pressure of a prolonged war is mounting from all sides.