By Galina Korol | 2025-11-20

For decades, the Kremlin has built its military doctrine on the claim that Russia alone can produce weapons "with no comparable analogues," a slogan so common it has become a meme -- one meant to signal technological supremacy at home but greeted with smirks abroad.

Yet the gap between myth and reality keeps widening: Moscow's most vaunted doomsday projects -- missiles that can fly forever and torpedoes said to drown coastlines-- have been plagued by failures and even deadly accidents, even as Ukrainian operatives slip deep inside Russia to destroy the very weapons the Kremlin insists the world should fear.

Kremlin's nuclear rhetoric

The Moscow Times reported November 1 on a fresh round of nuclear rhetoric from the Kremlin. Security Council Secretary Sergei Shoigu urged "all doubters to believe" the Burevestnik nuclear-powered cruise missile and the Poseidon underwater drone are real.

President Vladimir Putin first showcased the weapons in 2018, standing before graphics of missiles streaking toward Florida. Seven years later, the Kremlin now says testing is finished and the missile is "ready for deployment."

On October 26, Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov said the Burevestnik flew for 15 hours and covered about 14,000 kilometers (8,700 miles). He added that Putin had ordered infrastructure built so the system could be fielded.

The Moscow Times, citing Western intelligence, reported that Russia attempted at least 13 Burevestnik launches from 2017 to 2019. Only two partly succeeded; one ended in disaster.

In 2019, a missile crashed into the Barents Sea. During the recovery effort, an explosion killed seven workers from the Sarov nuclear center and released a radioactive cloud that reached Severodvinsk and parts of Scandinavia.

Poseidon after Burevestnik

The Kremlin did not appear to stop with the Burevestnik. Two days later, service members allegedly carried out successful tests of the Poseidon nuclear torpedo, Putin said publicly October 29, according to Russian.News.Cn.

Russian propagandists cast Poseidon as an underwater drone capable of triggering a radioactive tsunami that could obliterate US coastal cities.

Putin said the vehicle can dive deeper than any comparable system, that nothing like it exists elsewhere, and that no current defenses can intercept it. He added that Poseidon's destructive power exceeds even that of Russia's most advanced intercontinental missile, the Sarmat.

But the Sarmat's most recent test, in September 2024, failed at launch and destroyed its own silo.

Myths from the Soviet archives

The Burevestnik and Poseidon are less next-generation weapons than "ghosts from the past," Kyiv-based political analyst and nuclear missile expert Oleksandr Kochetkov told Kontur.

He said Poseidon rests on a myth that a nuclear blast underwater could trigger a "super tsunami." Modeling in the 1970s showed such an explosion cannot generate a sustained wave, he added, noting that tsunami formation differs depending on whether the source is an earthquake or a nuclear detonation.

Pavel Podvig, a senior researcher at the UN Institute for Disarmament Research, agreed. He told Kontur Soviet-era studies repeatedly found that even a coastal nuclear explosion could not produce a city-destroying wave, adding that coastal geography prevents any "radioactive tsunami."

The Poseidon project appears real but far from combat-ready, according to Podvig. Work is underway, but not with the success needed to claim completion.

On the Burevestnik missile, Podvig said isolated tests may have taken place, an assessment partly supported by Norwegian intelligence.

Kochetkov added that this supposedly "supernew missile" offers no real advantage over weapons Russia already fields.

When Moscow runs out of real arguments, it reaches for the word "nuclear." After nearly four years of full-scale war -- hundreds of thousands of destroyed missiles, heavy personnel losses and sanctions -- Russia's message is that it still has ways to escalate.

Kochetkov said the Kremlin's logic is straightforward: conventional weapons no longer shock anyone.

"They're already used to missiles, they're used to subs, so let's try to frighten them with a mythical torpedo," he said.

He argued that the loud nuclear threats mask a simple political calculation. Russia, unable to achieve battlefield success, is looking for a way to intimidate Ukraine's supporters.

Ukraine's response

No matter how often the Kremlin brandishes its nuclear arsenal, it will not force Ukraine to capitulate, observers say. Three years ago, Ukraine absorbed massive Russian strikes without hitting back. That dynamic has shifted: Kyiv is now responding where Moscow least expects it.

In late October, Security Service of Ukraine chief Vasyl Maliuk disclosed a covert operation in which Ukrainian intelligence destroyed one of Russia's Oreshnik missiles -- another system the Kremlin touts as unique. Citing Maliuk, Ukrainian media reported that the missile was destroyed at the Kapustin Yar test site in Astrakhan region.

UNIAN quoted Maliuk on October 31 as saying the mission achieved "one hundred percent destruction." He said only the Ukrainian president was initially briefed, along with several foreign leaders.

According to Maliuk, the operation occurred in summer 2023, long before Russia began publicly showcasing the Oreshnik.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy later confirmed that Russia had three Oreshnik missiles at the time; one was launched in November 2024 at the city of Dnipro.

Kochetkov said Ukrainian operatives did "fantastic work" in eliminating the missile, even if the weapon itself was unremarkable despite Kremlin hype.

He said the operation required sabotage from inside the test site -- recruiting a staff or security member to bring in an explosive device. He called it a "brilliant accomplishment" by Ukrainian intelligence services.