Russia-Ukraine war live: US warns China of ‘consequences’ if it helps Russia; Putin unveils plan to deploy new nuclear missile

Vladimir Putin has said Russia will deploy its new Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missile, nicknamed “Satan 2”, as well as roll out hypersonic missiles and new nuclear submarines.

In an address to mark the “Defender of the Fatherland” holiday on Thursday, Putin said Russia would “pay increased attention” to boost its nuclear forces on land, sea and in the air, Reuters reports.

The Russian leader, who has in recent days has signalled he is ready to rip up the architecture of nuclear arms control, invoked the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany to argue that Russia needed modernised armed forces to guarantee its sovereignty.

It comes after he said Russia would halt its participation in New Start, the last major remaining nuclear arms control treaty with the US.

In his address today, Putin said the Sarmat silo-based intercontinental ballistic missiles would be deployed this year. The RS-28 Sarmat liquid-fueled missile has been in development for years. Russia said it had test-launched the missile in April 2022.

The US believes Russia carried out a test of the Sarmat just before President Joe Biden’s visit to Kyiv earlier this week and that the test failed, CNN has reported. The Russian defence ministry has not commented on that report.

In addition, Putin said Russia would continue mass production of air-based hypersonic Kinzhal systems and would start mass supplies of sea-based Zircon hypersonic missiles.

In remarks issued by the Kremlin earlier today, Putin said:

With the adoption of the Borei-A nuclear-powered submarine project ‘Emperor Alexander III’ into the navy, the share of modern weapons and equipment in the naval strategic nuclear forces will reach 100%.

Emperor Alexander III, first launched in December, is the seventh Borei-A class submarine and can each carry 16 Bulava submarine-launched ballistic missiles.

Putin said Russia would develop all parts of Russia’s conventional armed forces, improve training, add advanced equipment, bolster the arms industry and promote soldiers who had proven themselves in battle. He said:

A modern, efficient army and navy are a guarantee of the country’s security and sovereignty, a guarantee of its stable development and its future. Therefore, we will continue to pay priority attention to strengthening our defence capability.

Hello everyone, it’s Léonie Chao-Fong taking over the live blog from Geneva Abdul. Feel free to get in touch on Twitter or via email.