National Security

‘Food For Thought’: Putin Tests Nuclear Missile, Warns Those Who ‘Threaten Our Country’

John Macdougall/AFP/Getty Images/TNS

Matthew Wearp Contributor
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Russia’s military carried out an intercontinental ballistic missile test Wednesday, with President Vladimir Putin warning the launch would “provide food for thought for those who … try to threaten our country.”

The new Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missile was launched from the Plesetsk launch facility in northern Russia towards designated targets at the Kura firing range on the far eastern Kamchatka Peninsula, the Defense Ministry said, according to Fox News

“This truly unique weapon will strengthen the combat potential of our armed forces, reliably ensure Russia’s security from external threats and provide food for thought for those who, in the heat of frenzied aggressive rhetoric, try to threaten our country,” Putin said following the launch, according to Reuters

Russia properly notified the United States ahead of the test on Wednesday, according to Pentagon spokesman John Kirby, the Washington Examiner reported. 

“Russia properly notified the United States under its new START treaty obligations [of] a plan to test this ICBM,” Kirby told reporters, according to the Washington Examiner. “Such testing is routine. And it was not a surprise, not deemed the test to be a threat to the United States or its allies.”

A senior U.S. defense official, however, called Putin’s rhetoric “unhelpful,” and not the language “that we would expect from a responsible nuclear power, especially in the current environment,” according to the Washington Examiner. (RELATED: Inside Look Into Crossing The Border To War-Torn Ukraine)

The United States has repeatedly attempted to de-escalate the situation and went so far as to postpone its own intercontinental ballistic missile test launch which was originally scheduled for March 2, according to the Washington Examiner. 

Putin also said that the missile “has the highest tactical and technical characteristics and is capable of overcoming all modern means of anti-missile defense. It has no analogues in the world and won’t have for a long time to come,” Reuters reported.  (RELATED: Viral Video Allegedly Shows A Mortar Strike On Russian Forces In Ukraine)

Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24. Putin previously ordered to put Russia’s nuclear forces on high alert, along with a warning that any meddling from the West would lead “to such consequences that you have never encountered in your history,” according to Reuters.