That, along with escalating sanctions and concerted strikes on Russia's energy infrastructure and arms production facilities, has set the Russians squawking yet again.
As for retaliation, you may have noticed Russia's been peppering Ukraine with massive missile salvoes daily for quite some time, so I think the "retaliation" horse has long bolted.
Likewise, the Russians have been trying to deploy this scary nuclear-powered Wunderwaffe for quite some time. Stories like this have cropped up at various points in the last few years.
It's not the first time the Russians have claimed a "successful" test of it, and it's a toss-up whether it's more of a danger to the Russians than anyone else:
The Burevestnik has a poor test record with numerous past failures, according to Western experts. In 2019 at least five Russian nuclear specialists were killed in an explosion and release of radiation during an experiment in the White Sea, and U.S. intelligence sources said they suspected it was part of a test of the Burevestnik. Putin presented their widows with top state awards, saying the weapon they were developing was without equal in the world, although he did not name it. Putin announced a successful test of the missile in October 2023.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/burevestnik-cruise-missile-nuclear-russia-b2852531.htmlIf they have achieved a successful lengthy test flight, I'd imagine
nuclear monitoring systems would be tripped, as there's no known way to achieve this method of propulsion without spreading a trail of nuclear pollution in in its wake. Only two out of 13 tests of the Burevestnik over the last few years have been at least partially successful, so whether any claimed "success" is repeatable is another matter. Russia's military has more pressing, potentially existential, problems at the moment anyway.
And every time Putin makes a willy-waving announcement about this system, it's accompanied by pearl-clutching in the media. This is from 2018:
If you read that article, you'll see that the US was developing a similar system back in the 1950s-1970s, but abandoned it because it was so filthy and problematic and had no credible strategic purpose nor any benefits over alternative systems.
It's not a first strike weapon - it's too slow. By the time it hit any target, Putin and his regime would long be toast. Its use case is envisaged as mopping up any remains of adversary countries after ballistic missile strikes. As for its fabled survivability, Putin has made similar boasts about Russia's "hypersonic" missiles, which Ukraine has ended up being able to successfully intercept with Patriots (until a recent suspected upgrade by the Russians, which will no doubt be met by other Ukrainian countermeasures in due course).
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