Trump says Putin should end the Ukraine war, not test missiles

AIR FORCE ONE, October 28 ------ U.S. President Donald Trump said that Russian President Vladimir Putin should end the war in Ukraine instead of testing a nuclear-powered missile, and that the United States had a nuclear submarine positioned off Russia's coast.

Putin said on Sunday that Russia had successfully tested its nuclear-powered Burevestnik cruise missile, a nuclear-capable weapon Moscow says can pierce any defence shield, and will move towards deploying the weapon. Moscow said the 9M730 Burevestnik (Storm Petrel) had flown for 14,000 km (8,700 miles). Asked on Air Force One about the test of the missile, dubbed the SSC-X-9 Skyfall by NATO, Trump said the United States did not need to fly so far as it had a nuclear submarine off the coast of Russia.

"They know we have a nuclear submarine, the greatest in the world, right off their shores, so I mean, it doesn't have to go 8,000 miles," Trump told reporters, according to an audio file posted by the White House. "I don't think it's an appropriate thing for Putin to be saying, either, by the way: You ought to get the war ended, the war that should have taken one week is now in ... its fourth year, that's what you ought to do instead of testing missiles."

KREMLIN SEES NO REASON FOR MISSILE TEST TO STRAIN TIES

Since first announcing the 9M730 Burevestnik in 2018, Putin has cast the weapon as a response to U.S. moves to build a missile defence shield after Washington in 2001 unilaterally withdrew from the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, and to enlarge the NATO military alliance.

Asked about Trump's remarks, the Kremlin said Russia would be guided by its own national interests but saw no reason for the missile test to strain relations with the White House. "Despite all our openness to establishing a dialogue with the United States, Russia, first of all, and the president of Russia, is guided by our own national interests," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. "That's how it was, that's how it is, and that's how it's going to be." The Kremlin said Russia was ensuring its own security by developing new weapons. "There is nothing here that can and should strain relations between Moscow and Washington," Peskov said.

Source: reuters.com