Putin 'tried to launch Satan II missile' while Biden was in Kyiv

telegraph.co.uk:  It was reported that Russia attempted and failed a test launch of its new intercontinental ballistic missile when Joe Biden was in neighboring Ukraine.

It was reported that Moscow tested a 200-ton nuclear missile known as the “Satan II”, which can carry a dozen warheads and hit anywhere in the world, while the US president met with his Ukrainian counterpart Vladimir Zelensky on Monday.

Russian officials have warned Washington along the so-called deconfliction lines that the launch will take place, US officials told CNN.

Sources said they did not view the test launch as an anomaly or escalation, the broadcaster reported.

Mr. Biden's aides used the same communication lines to notify Moscow of his visit to Kiev, warning against any attacks on the city.

It is unclear whether the launch attempt took place during the four hours when the US president was in the Ukrainian capital to mark the one-year anniversary of Vladimir Putin's invasion.

The Russian president previously boasted that his new missile, officially known as the Sarmat, "will make those who are trying to threaten Russia think."

The missile reportedly has a range of 18,000 km (11,000 miles) and can deliver 10 to 15 nuclear warheads at hypersonic speeds.

Military analysts said he could have reached London in just 13 minutes if he had been based in the far west of Russia.

Putin has announced successful ICBM tests in the past, including last April, just months after he ordered his armed forces to try to take over Kiev.

But in his first address to the nation after the invasion of Ukraine, the Russian leader on Tuesday did not mention the launch.

However, he announced that he was withdrawing from the world's last remaining nuclear arms control treaty.

He said he would suspend the new START treaty, calling efforts to resolve U.S. inspections on Russian soil "a theater of the absurd."

The 2010 agreement limits both the United States and Russia to the deployment of 1,550 nuclear warheads each and includes provisions on compliance control, such as on-site inspections.

The decision to withdraw from it followed months of rattling of nuclear weapons by Putin, which, according to most in the West, is designed to distract attention from failures on the battlefield in Ukraine.

“They want to inflict a strategic defeat on us and interfere in our nuclear facilities,” Putin told members of both chambers of the Russian parliament. “In this context, I must announce today that Russia is suspending its participation in the Strategic Offensive Arms treaty.”