Putin says russia has successfully tested a missile with a nuclear power plant "Burevestnik"

Russian dictator Vladimir Putin has announced that a successful test of a Burevestnik missile with a nuclear power plant has been completed.

"We have practically completed work on the modern types of strategic weapons that I talked about and announced several years ago. The last successful test of the Burevestnik, a global-range cruise missile with a nuclear propulsion system, has been conducted," he said at the Valdai forum.

Earlier, The New York Times wrote that signs of activity were spotted at the missile launch site. At the time, the newspaper reported that Russia may be planning to test a nuclear-capable missile or had already tested it.

Similar activity around the launch site at Russia's nuclear test site in the Arctic was observed before the early Burevestnik tests.

As noted by Kholod, two days before this announcement, the Kremlin denied that such tests had taken place.

"I don't know where the New York Times journalists got this from," Peskov said when asked about the tests.

In August 2019, an explosion at a test site near Severodvinsk in the Arkhangelsk region was linked to the Burevestnik missile tests, killing at least five people. The day after the explosion, the Severodvinsk administration reported that a short-term radioactive spike had occurred in the city.

The gamma radiation dose rate in Severodvinsk after the missile explosion at the test site on August 8 was 4-16 times higher than background values. After the sharp jump on August 8, the radiation background in the city returned to normal.

Background. As a reminder, Putin "returned" 16,000 armored vehicles to Ukraine, which he said had been "destroyed" earlier – the Russian dictator is confused about the Ukrainian counteroffensive.