VLADIMIR Putin has been secretly pummelling Ukraine with a banned missile for months – as Donald Trump is forced to start testing nuclear weapons again.
Ukraine reports the cruise missile, developed under wraps and capable of carrying nukes, has been fired into the country repeatedly since August.
The Novator 9M729 is outlawed under the pact between America and Russia – meaning Trump has now been forced to rip it up completely.
In a pivotal moment, he ordered the US military to start testing nuclear weapons again – and Russia has now responded with threats to ramp up as well.
Ukraine’s foreign minister, Andrii Sybiham, said that Russia had been firing the missile, with another source telling Reuters it had done so 23 times.
They also revealed that two launches were previously recorded in 2022.
It’s now emerged this is what really kickstarted the nuclear arms race again.
The Novator 9M729 has been threatening world peace for years.
Back in 2019, it prompted the US to quit an agreement called the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty which had stood since 1987.
This saw the US and Russia agree to destroy and avoid all ground-launched ballistic and cruise missiles with a ranges from 500km to 5,500km.
Russia always claimed that 9M729’s max range was 500km – but America was convince they were lying and the reach was in fact much greater.
Western weapons experts estimate it can actually fly for around 2,500km.
Meanwhile, it’s emerged that a bolshy memo sent by Moscow to Washington was behind the collapse of talks between Trump and Putin.
Russia was stubbornly sticking to hard-line demands within peace negotiations, and after a tense call the talks were scrapped, the Financial Times reported.
Breaking with three decades of de-escalation, Trump on Thursday dramatically ordered his military to “immediately” resume testing America’s vast nuclear arsenal.
The Kremlin hit back furiously on Wednesday.
It claimed that Russia had not run any nuclear weapons tests recently, but that it would order them if the US did.
What do we know about the Novator 9M729?
THE Novator 9M729 is a ground-launched cruise missile developed by Russia.
It made headlines when it led to the US withdrawing from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF Treaty) in August 2019.
The US insisted the missile breached the treaty because it boasted a banned range – though Russia denied this.
Under the agreement, Russia and the US were not allowed to develop missiles with ranges between 500km and 5,500km.
Russia claimed 9M729 had a range of no more than 500km, but Western experts place it at around 2,350km.
The US National Security Council first said in December 2017 it thought the missile violated the INF Treaty.
A spokesman said he hoped Trump had been properly briefed on Russia’s most recent tests of nuclear-capable weapons because “they certainly cannot be viewed as nuclear testing at all”.
Neither country has confirmed a nuclear weapon test since 1990.
In 2023, Russia said it would only resume tests of its nuclear weapons if Washington did it first.
Trump’s order came just hours after Russia said it tested a nuclear-powered torpedo – the second such aggressive test announcement by Moscow within a week.
Washington’s decision also follows a rapid expansion by China of its nuclear stockpile in recent years.
Trump said that while the US has the biggest nuclear arsenal in the world, Russia is second, and China is a distant third – but will be even “within five years”.
The president wrote on Truth Social: “Because of other countries’ testing programs, I have instructed the Department of War to start testing our Nuclear Weapons on an equal basis. That process will begin immediately.
“The United States has more Nuclear Weapons than any other country. This was accomplished, including a complete update and renovation of existing weapons, during my First Term in office.
“Because of the tremendous destructive power, I HATED to do it, but had no choice! Russia is second, and China is a distant third, but will be even within 5 years.”
The US military already regularly tests its missiles that are capable of delivering a nuclear warhead, but it has not detonated the weapons since 1992 because of a test ban.
But the president suggested that changes were necessary to meet the rising threat from other countries.
Vlad announced earlier this week a new super weapon dubbed the “Flying Chernobyl” had been successfully test-launched – and would soon be ready for battle.
Two days later, he declared Russia had successfully tested a nuclear-capable super torpedo called Poseidon.
Boasting about Poseidon’s lethality, Putin said: “There is nothing like this in the world in terms of the speed and the depth of the movement of this unmanned vehicle — and it is unlikely there ever will be.”
Russia and the US have both said Poseidon torpedoes are a new breed of retaliatory weapon which can cause radioactive tsunamis and make whole coastlines uninhabitable.
Trump was firm after the first announcement – and the second appears to have tipped him over the edge.
Addressing the Russian escalations aboard Air Force One earlier this week, Trump said that Putin should be working to end the war in Ukraine “instead of testing missiles”.
Meanwhile, Beijing has reportedly more than doubled the size of its arsenal to an estimated 600 nuclear weapons in 2025 from 300 weapons in 2020.
It said US military officials estimate that China will have over 1,000 nuclear weapons by 2030.
