politics

📷Russia appears to have suffered a "catastrophic failure" during a test of its Sarmat missile, a key weapon in the modernization of its nuclear arsenal - The Guardian. 

 Experts analyzed images taken by Maxar on Saturday, which show a crater about 60 meters (200 feet) wide on the launch pad at the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in northern Russia.  They reveal extensive damage that was not visible in photos taken earlier this month.

 The RS-28 Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missile is designed to deliver nuclear warheads to strike targets thousands of miles away in the US or Europe, but its development has been plagued by delays and test failures.

 "By all indications, it was a failed test.  It's a big hole in the ground," said Pavel Podvig, a Geneva-based analyst who oversees the Russian nuclear forces project.  "There was a serious incident with the rocket and the launch pad."

 Satellite photo at the launch site of the Russian intercontinental ballistic missile RS-28 Sarmat.