PUTIN is said to have ordered the deadly 16,000mph Satan 2 to be battle-ready sparking fears of a major escalation in the war.
The threatening move sees the killer nuclear capable RS-28 Sarmat – dubbed “the world’s deadliest weapon” – being on “combat duty.”
It was announced by Russian state news agency Tass despite testing failures and delays.
Head of Russia‘s Strategic Missile Forces, Col-Gen Sergei Karakayev said that work continues to place the missile on “combat duty,” Tass reported.
He said: “As of today, fifth-generation Yars and Avangard missile systems have been introduced in the strategic missile forces.
“Work continues on placing the newest silo-based Sarmat missile system with a liquid-fueled super-heavy missile on combat duty.”
The threat comes after Moscow struck the Ukrainian city of Dnipro last week, using an intercontinental ballistic missile for the first time in a major escalation of the war.
Dramatic footage shows rockets -reportedly fired from six different warheads from a nuclear-capable Russian R-26 Rubezh ICBM.
The huge attack was part of a savage response by Russia to Ukraine’s air attacks deep inside Russia using US-supplied ATACMS missiles.
Moscow issued a chilling threat to the West with Russia‘s defence ministry saying: “Retaliatory actions are being prepared.”
While the Russian despot said in a televised speech: “From that moment, a regional conflict in Ukraine previously provoked by the West has acquired elements of a global character,
Russia‘s foreign ministry said it would be “insane” and “suicidal” for the West to give Ukraine nuclear weapons.
Spokesperson Maria Zakharova, said part of the reason of the Ukrainian invasion was to prevent a situation like that.
She warned that “irresponsible actions” could bring the world to “the brink of catastrophe.”
Known in the West as Satan-2, the “unstoppable 15,880mph intercontinental missile system is the size of a 14-storey tower block.
Alarming satellite images taken in September showed a massive crater at the Satan nuke launch site after a “major blast during a failed test”.
It was the fourth failure of a Satan-2 test, of which there is only one known success, which Putin oversaw in April 2022.
Russia boasts that the monster 208-ton intercontinental silo-launched 15,880mph nuclear weapon is “unstoppable” by the West.
The Satan-2 carries ten nuclear warheads of 750 kilotons each.
While its development has proceeded in extreme secrecy reports have leaked out of multiple test failures.
PUTIN’S CHILLING THREAT
BY Elizabeta Ranxburgaj and Will Stewart
VLADIMIR Putin has issued a chilling threat to the West against American and British rockets being used by Ukraine to attack Russia.
The tyrant’s “response” comes after the Kremlin ramped up the aggression in its invasion of Ukraine as it expelled a UK diplomat.
Moscow’s military vowed a chilling “response” to fresh Ukrainian air attacks deep inside Russia using US-supplied ATACMS missiles.
Russia’s defence ministry posted a short but chilling threat on Telegram, writing: “Retaliatory actions are being prepared.”
This followed Kyiv launching long-range rockets for the first time on 18 November, after US President Joe Biden approved their use by Volodymyr Zelensky’s troops.
Russia’s defence ministry said Ukraine had carried out fresh strikes, on 23 and 25 November, using the ATACMS rockets.
Two out of five missiles launched on Saturday damaged a Russian S-400 air defence system.
Two soldiers were wounded in the second attack which saw eight missiles launched at the Kursk-Vostochny airport, which is also a military airbase.
Russia’s defence ministry posted pictures of what it said were fragments of a ATACMS, showing large casings on the road.
The Ukrainian military also fired British Storm Shadow rockets, which are capable of dodging air defences, on 20 November.
This deadly strike was said to have killed a top-Russian military man, Lt-Gen Valery Solodchuk, and 500 North Korean troops, who were sent to help Putin’s army.
This elicited a furious reaction from Moscow who retaliated by firing intercontinental ballistic rockets into several Ukrainian cities for the first time, on Thursday.
Putin previously threatened to continue unleashing his devastating ICBMs on Ukraine and already threatened to strike the UK and US “if necessary.”
The despot said he would not hold back from using the destructive “Oreshnik” hypersonic ballistic weapon, which hit the Ukrainian city of Dnipro.
Kyiv fears Russia may already have 10 of the terrifying weapons in its arsenal with Putin vowing to mass produce dozens more.