MOSCOW: President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday that Russia had successfully tested a Poseidon nuclear-powered super torpedo that military analysts say is capable of devastating coastal regions by triggering vast radioactive ocean swells.

As US President Donald Trump has toughened both his rhetoric and his stance on Russia, Putin has publicly flexed his nuclear muscles with the test of a new Burevestnik cruise missile on Oct 21 and nuclear launch drills on Oct 22.

There are few confirmed details about the Poseidon, named after the ancient Greek god of the sea, but it is essentially a nuclear-capable cross between a torpedo and a drone.

Putin, over tea and cakes at a hospital in Moscow with Russian soldiers wounded in the Ukraine war, said the test had taken place on Tuesday. “For the first time, we managed not only to launch it with a launch engine from a carrier submarine, but also to launch the nuclear power unit on which this device passed a certain amount of time,” Putin said.

“There is nothing like this,” he said, adding there was no way to intercept the Poseidon, which analysts believe has a range of 10,000 km and can travel at about 185 km per hour.

The Burevestnik and Poseidon tests are intended to send a clear message that Russia, in Putin’s words, will never bow to Western pressure over the war in Ukraine. For Trump, who has called Russia a “paper tiger” for failing to swiftly subdue Ukraine, the message is that Russia remains a global military competitor, especially on nuclear weapons, and that Moscow’s overtures on nuclear arms control should be acted on.

Published in Dawn, October 30th, 2025