Are we looking at an imminent world war? Some media reports on Thursday claimed that Russia conducted a series of ballistic missile tests, suggesting that it may be hinting yet another World War.
Reportedly Russia tested the world’s fastest missile, Topol this week.
State-run news agency RIA Novosti announced a nuclear-capable rocket was fired from a Pacific Fleet submarine in the Sea of Okhotsk, north of Japan.
The missile tests were conducted from a submarine in the Barents Sea off the Russian coast and from an island site in the northwest of the country.
Image courtesy: Daily Star
The country’s Defence Ministry said in a statement the training warhead “struck a simulated target on the firing range on the Kamchatka peninsula”.
The third missile was launched from a submarine of the Pacific Fleet in the Sea of Okhotsk, north of Japan.
Out of the three, the Topol missile has a maximum range of 10,000 km that could carry a nuclear warhead of 550 kilotons.
Image courtesy: Daily Star
The tests come at a time when the relations between Russia and the US are at their lowest point, especially concerning Syria. Vladimir Putin has authorised the movement of air defence missile systems and missile cruisers to beef-up its forces there.
The Kremlin has abandoned a number of deals with Washington as result, including the disarmament pact for both superpowers to get rid of weapons grade plutonium.
Meanwhile, commenting on a potential threat of a war, the Russian defence minister Sergei Shoigu said, “Scheduled activities of our operational and combat training are misrepresented as ‘alarming signals’. The ideas of a military threat, a new cold war or an arms race are being circulated. Of course, it is not true.”
On the other hand, it was also learned that Russia has asked its officials and their relatives living abroad to come home amid the rising tensions over an imminent nuclear war.
