STARTLING satellite images show a huge crater at Vladimir Putin’s doomsday Satan nuke launch site after a “major blast during a failed test”.
They give an eerie glimpse into the total destruction of the tyrant’s biggest missile, nuclear capable RS-28 Sarmat – known in the West as Satan-2.
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A giant crater is seen at Plesetsk cosmodrome in northern Russia – the result of a supposed catastrophic overnight failure of a test launch.
Analyst MeNMyR said: “As is readily apparent, the RS-28 Sarmat test was a complete failure.
“The missile detonated in the silo leaving a massive crater and destroying the test site.
“The Sarmat is a liquid fuelled missile so this accident could have occurred separate from the actual launch activity.”
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Four firefighting trucks are visible on a satellite image seeking to contain damage from the evident accident.
If confirmed, this would represent a monumental blow for Putin, who sees the doomsday missile as being the centrepiece of his nuclear advantage over the West.
It would be the fourth failure of a Satan-2 test, of which there is only one known success, which Putin oversaw in April 2022.
It has though been deployed with Russia’s strategic missile forces.
OSINT analysts said there was no evidence of the US Air Force reconnaissance aircraft RC-135S Cobra Ball flying to observe a launch.
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Nor was a Sarmat-Satan-2 test announced in advance, but they never are.
In a separate incident, there were unconfirmed claims by Russian Telegram channel VChK-OGPU on Saturday that a silo facility containing one of the giant rockets was hit in a Ukrainian kamikaze drone strike at Oktyabrsky, close to Toropets, in Tve region.
There was a giant explosion at the site of what was also reported to be a missile and ammunition arsenal.
The monster hypersonic missile is designed to strike the West by flying over the North or South Poles, making it impossible to strike down by air defences.
Putin boasts that the apocalypse 208-ton intercontinental silo-launched 15,880mph nuclear weapon, the size of a 14-storey tower block, is “unstoppable” by the West.
Satan-2 carries ten nuclear warheads of 750 kilotons each.
Its development has proceeded in extreme secrecy yet reports have leaked out of multiple test failures – including today’s.
The Sarmat-Satan-2 complex is due to replace the Voevoda – or Satan – missile which has been in service since the 1980s.
Russian reports say that Sarmat has been hit during the war in Ukraine by Western sanctions that have prevented its makers obtaining key components.
The same VChK-OGPU channel reported in April: “The Krasnoyarsk Machine-Building Plant is experiencing a serious shortage of electronic components….for production of the strategic missiles.
“The electronics of the new RS 28 [Sarmat] missile system are largely of foreign origin and, due to sanctions, [they] are experiencing a serious shortage.
“Now all efforts are being made to somehow correct the situation with the supply of sanctioned electronics.”
Putin’s own state news agency TASS reported last year that “even a truncated LCI [flight development tests], and assuming all launches are successful, would require several more launches, including via the South Pole”.
Kyiv military expert Oleksandr Kovalenko, of the Information Resistance Group, said previously that Satan-2 “is unreliable and dangerous”.
He told RBC-Ukraine: “It’s a very problematic missile.
“The Russians couldn’t even manage test launches.”
The R-36M2 Voevoda missile was tested no less than 17 times in the Cold War before it was put on combat duty.
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