Did Putin’s ‘tiny flying Chernobyl’ trigger Trump to restart nuclear tests? Unpacking US-Russia war of words

US President Donald Trump on Wednesday ordered the military to restart testing of nuclear  weapons, first time in more than three decades, which the President claimed was in response  to the growing arsenal Russia and China are amassing. “Because of other countries' testing  programs, I have instructed the Department of War to start testing our Nuclear Weapons on an equal basis,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “That process will begin immediately,” the President added.

But, analysts think it was Russia’s testing of the Burevestnik that triggered Trump to adopt the extreme stance. President Vladimir Putin had claimed that Russia successfully tested its  nuclear-powered and nuclear-capable Burevestnik missile and is preparing to deploy it. The missile, which the Kremlin says can evade missile defense systems, has been codenamed by NATO as ‘Skyfall’ and others call it a ‘tiny flying Chernobyl’.  

The test has triggered President Donald Trump, who said it was “inappropriate” for Russia to be conducting such tests when Russia should be focusing on peace talks with Ukraine.

Here is a brief explainer on the war of words between the two leaders, which could have contributed to Trump’s decision to relaunch the tests.

Russia’s ‘everyone went quiet’ statement

Putin, while announcing the tests, called the missile a unique product, unlike anything else in the world. “I remember vividly when we announced that we were developing such a weapon,  and even highly qualified specialists told me that, yes, it was a good and worthy goal, but unrealisable in the near future,” Putin said.

Even Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov added heat to the scenario, stating that after these exercises, "everyone went quiet." "I haven't heard any comments through diplomatic channels. Everyone's gone quiet," Lavrov said during his visit to Minsk, according to Russian media.

Trump’s ‘we have a nuclear submarine’ remark

In response to the Burevestnik test, Trump said: “[Russia] knows we have a nuclear submarine, the most powerful in the world, right off their coast. So it doesn't need to travel 8,000 miles. They don't play games with us, and we don't play games with them. We're constantly testing missiles. Putin should end this war, which was supposed to last one week but has already lasted four years. That's what he should be doing, not testing missiles.”

Putin’s response to Trump's threats

The Russian President went on about the advantages of the Burevestnik, stating that its advantage was that it's a small nuclear propulsion system. “While it has comparable power  to, say, a nuclear submarine's reactor, it's 1,000 times smaller. But that's not the most important thing. The most important thing is that while a conventional nuclear reactor starts up in hours, days, or weeks, this nuclear reactor starts up in minutes and seconds,” he said.

Putin again

Announcing the launch of Poseidon Nuclear Torpedo, Putin said the test saw the mysterious weapon launched from a submarine and traveling under nuclear propulsion.

“Yesterday, we conducted another test of another promising system—the Poseidon unmanned underwater vehicle. It also has a nuclear propulsion system. For the first time, we succeeded not only in launching it from a submarine using its booster motor, but also in igniting its nuclear propulsion system, which propelled the vehicle for a certain period of time. In terms of the speed and depth of this unmanned vehicle, there's nothing comparable in the world, and it's unlikely to appear anytime soon. There are no known interception methods,” he said.

Trump went on to cap it up by ordering nuclear tests. 

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