Western media report explosion of Putin's super missile on Plesetsk cosmodrome

Western media reported an incident that allegedly occurred at the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in the Arkhangelsk Region of Russia, where the Sarmat missile was being tested. The Kremlin said that it had no knowledge on the topic and redirected the question to the Russian Defense Ministry.

There were no official reports about the Sarmat missile being prepared for testing. Kremlin's official spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that journalists should rather contact the military.

"We do not have any information on this matter. This is rather a question that falls within the competence of our military, so I recommend contacting them," he said.

OSINT project MeNMyRC was the first to report the unsuccessful test of the Sarmat missile. This mammoth missile was dubbed as Russian President Vladimir Putin's superweapon. Researchers published satellite images of the site and suggested that Sarmat tests or preparations for them were being carried out there.

Later, a US Cobra Ball reconnaissance aircraft was later spotted in the area. The Alaska-based UAV is used to monitor ballistic missile launches.

In February, Russian President Putin said that the first serial heavy ballistic missiles Sarmat had been delivered to the troops. Putin also said that the new missile would soon be demonstrated in the areas of deployment on duty.

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The RS-28 Sarmat (NATO reporting name: SS-X-29 or SS-X-30), often colloquially referred to as Satan II by media outlets, is a three-stage Russian silo-based, liquid-fueled, HGV-capable and FOBS-capable super-heavy intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) produced by the Makeyev Rocket Design Bureau. It is intended to replace the Soviet R-36M ICBM in Russia's arsenal. The Sarmat is one of six new Russian strategic weapons unveiled by Russian president Vladimir Putin on 1 March 2018. The RS-28 Sarmat made its first test flight on 20 April 2022. On 16 August 2022, a state contract was signed for the manufacture and supply of the Sarmat strategic missile system. The missile officially entered operational service in September 2023, as the world's longest range and most powerful extant ICBM system. Despite the Russian claims that the missile is on 'combat alert' it has experienced four failed tests, the most recent on 21 September 2024.

 
Plesetsk Cosmodrome  is a Russian spaceport located in Mirny, Arkhangelsk Oblast, about 800 km north of Moscow and approximately 200 km south of Arkhangelsk. As of 2024, it is Europe's only operational orbital spaceport and the northernmost spaceport in the world. Originally developed as an ICBM site for the R-7 missile, it also served for numerous satellite launches using the R-7 and other rockets. Its high latitude makes it useful only for certain types of launches, especially the Molniya orbits, so for much of the site's history it functioned as a secondary location, with most orbital launches taking place from Baikonur, in the Kazakh SSR. With the end of the Soviet Union, Baikonur became a foreign territory, and Kazakhstan charged $115 million usage fees annually. Consequently, Plesetsk has seen considerably more activity since the 2000s.