Bombshell: Direct American involvement in strikes on Russian oil facilities — Russia responds with the “invisible” nuclear missile Burevestnik.
The war in Ukraine is escalating asymmetrically, rapidly and dangerously, with US-linked outlets openly reporting American involvement in strikes on Russian oil facilities.
American “fingerprints” on the Ukrainian strikes, together with the imminent delivery of Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine, have enraged Russia, which treats as a fait accompli the decision to deploy new, more powerful weapons in the conflict — weapons that are expected to produce a proportional response against the West.
A related preview was made on Friday 10/12 by Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Commonwealth of Independent States summit, where he spoke of “a new, immensely powerful Russian weapon that is currently in the testing phase.”
Bombshell: Direct US involvement in strikes on Russian oil facilities
US and Ukrainian officials who spoke to the Financial Times revealed that the United States is playing a decisive role in the ongoing major attacks on Russian energy infrastructure launched from Ukrainian territory.
American intelligence is reportedly provided to assist Ukrainian drone operators in planning flight paths and altitudes, selecting the optimal timing for strikes, and prioritising targets.
Sources said Washington views Ukrainian attacks on energy installations as a “tool” to undermine the Russian economy and to pressure Moscow into freezing the conflict on terms favourable to Western interests.
The revelations follow a statement by Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, who claimed it was “obvious” to Moscow that “the entire NATO and US infrastructure are being used to collect and transfer information to the Ukrainian side.”
NATO’s role in long-range Ukrainian strikes against Russia
NATO member states, including the United States, have played a central role supporting Ukrainian strikes on Russian targets since the full-scale hostilities began in 2022.
In February 2023 the Russian government asserted that the alliance’s entire satellite network and, more broadly, NATO military infrastructure, support Ukraine’s military efforts.
Already in February 2023 an official Kremlin statement said: “We see how the whole military infrastructure of NATO is working against Russia, and we see how all of NATO’s information infrastructure, including reconnaissance aviation and satellite systems, operates in Ukraine’s interest 24/7.”
This reportedly included the rapid provision of targeting data for missile and artillery strikes, which dealt heavy blows to Russian forces.
A secret CIA network at the heart of the war
Four months earlier, in October 2022, The New York Times reported that a “secret network” of the CIA was at the core of the conflict — referring to how the United States had established in Ukraine “a covert network of commandos and spies racing to provide weapons, intelligence, and training. CIA personnel continue to operate secretly in the country, primarily in the capital, Kyiv, directing much of the vast flow of information the United States shares with Ukrainian forces.”
“The signs of their covert support in logistics, training, and intelligence are tangible on the battlefield,” the Times noted.
“Commandos from other NATO countries, such as Britain, France, Canada, and Lithuania, are also working inside Ukraine training and advising Ukrainian forces and maintaining a constant link for weapons and other supplies,” the paper added, describing the scale of the secret effort to support Ukraine as “impressive.”
The indicators of this Western involvement have grown significantly over the past three years, including an increasing reliance on Western fighters on the front lines — such as the Polish Volunteer Corps and the American Projection Group.
“The Americans and the British hit Sudzha with HIMARS”
In March 2025, Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated that the United Kingdom and France had played a central role in a recent Ukrainian attack on Russian energy infrastructure — specifically on the Sudzha pipeline, which was “de facto destroyed” using HIMARS missile systems supplied by the United States.
“Targeting and navigation were facilitated through French satellites and British specialists who entered the target coordinates and launched the missiles. The order came from London,” the Ministry claimed.
Western officials have increasingly expressed their support for major strikes on Russian civilian infrastructure — in some cases aiming to render entire regions uninhabitable.
Targeting data from satellites and aircraft, on-the-ground assistance for the use of complex equipment, as well as the supply of missiles, drone components, industrial expertise, and funding, were all elements of this support.
Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service maintains that the Western objective behind the pressure for a ceasefire with Russia is to allow Ukraine to reorganise its forces and continue hostilities under more favourable conditions.
Global awe – Putin signals activation of the Burevestnik nuclear missile – Tomahawks look like toys in comparison
Meanwhile, Russia’s new Burevestnik nuclear cruise missile, a weapon said to possess global range, may soon be unveiled — an event expected to strike awe across the world.
According to Russian media outlets such as Lenta, this is the meaning behind President Vladimir Putin’s recent remark about responding to the delivery of Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine with “new, more powerful Russian weapons.”
Putin stated that a new weapon — which he did not name — would soon be revealed in the country.
Russian outlets emphasised that the president was referring to the completion of work on the Burevestnik missile.
“In 2025, there were indications of preparations for new tests — the closure of areas in Novaya Zemlya, increased transport aircraft activity, and indirect confirmations from industrial sources, though no official announcements,” Lenta reported.
The same sources linked Putin’s statement to the potential revival of a land-based version of the Kalibr missile system, codenamed Relief.
According to analysts, such a move would represent a logical response to the expansion of U.S. missile programmes.
The possibility of developing the Relief system was first discussed in 2019,
and production is believed to require limited time, since existing launchers could be adapted for a mobile platform.
The range of the land-based Kalibr is estimated at 2,600 kilometres.
At the same time, in August, the Barents Observer reported that the Burevestnik missile could soon undergo testing,
citing the closure of airspace near Novaya Zemlya
— a site used for nuclear weapons testing since the late 1950s.
Closer than ever to operational deployment of the Burevestnik
It is noted that the intense activity observed months earlier on Russia’s Novaya Zemlya archipelago pointed to an imminent test of the Burevestnik nuclear-powered cruise missile, known to NATO as Skyfall.
The Burevestnik — a complex system designed to carry a nuclear warhead and evade missile defences — has a troubled development history, including a fatal explosion in 2019.
The timing of the potential test, along with visits by senior Russian military and nuclear officials, indicates that the missile is nearing operational deployment, driven by Moscow’s desire for prestige and protection against U.S. missile defence systems.
In September, heightened activity was recorded across the barren Novaya Zemlya region: personnel movements, excavation trucks, containers, temporary housing units, heavy transport planes, helicopters, and cargo ships.
This activity was detected through satellite imagery, aircraft hazard notices, ship trackers, and open-source intelligence reports, coinciding with the long Arctic days and favourable weather — ideal conditions for construction at the Pankovo test range and the nearby air base.
Analysts of Russian weapons systems now anticipate a new Burevestnik cruise missile test.
“The operational sites for this system are almost ready. It will soon become an active system,” said Decker Eveleth, a researcher at the Center for Naval Analyses near Washington, after examining satellite images from July and August.
“This might have been the final check before operational testing and evaluation.”
Similarly, Pavel Podvig, a Geneva-based expert on arms control and Russia’s nuclear forces, commented: “I wouldn’t be surprised if the test has already taken place.”
Specifications
The missile — nicknamed Skyfall by NATO — has been in development for more than a decade.
It belongs to a new generation of weapons systems that Russian designers have focused on as the Kremlin pours resources into armament programmes, part of a partially acknowledged arms race, mainly against the United States.
Other systems in this category include the Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missile, the Poseidon nuclear-powered torpedo with a nuclear warhead, and the Avangard hypersonic glide vehicle.
Russian President Vladimir Putin unveiled several of these weapons during public ceremonies in 2018 and 2019.
The Kinzhal and Tsirkon missiles have already been deployed in Ukraine, while the Sarmat has undergone tests but suffered a serious accident last year.
The Burevestnik has drawn particular attention due to both its cutting-edge technology and its previous failures.
The missile is powered by a miniature nuclear reactor integrated into its engine, theoretically allowing it to remain airborne for days at a time.
According to a 2019 report from the Nuclear Threat Initiative, the missile “is designed to carry a nuclear warhead, circle the Earth at low altitude, evade missile defences and obstacles, and deliver its payload to a difficult-to-detect location.”
U.S. intelligence agencies have reported that the missile has been tested at least a dozen times, including in 2017 and 2019.
“Death at Nyonoksa”
One of the testing sites was the White Sea, west of the city of Arkhangelsk, near the port of Severodvinsk.
In August 2019, during an attempt to recover a Burevestnik from the seabed near the village of Nyonoksa, an explosion scattered radiation across a wide area, including Severodvinsk, killing at least five Russian nuclear specialists from the state atomic agency Rosatom, believed to have been leading the missile’s development.
U.S. officials concluded that the blast was “caused by a nuclear reaction during the recovery of the Russian nuclear-powered cruise missile.”
Two years earlier, another missile — also believed to be a Burevestnik — had crashed into the Barents Sea, west of Novaya Zemlya.
“They’ve been developing this system for over a decade, and it didn’t go well for a long time,” said Decker Eveleth.
“People died… and they didn’t give up. They kept going for fifteen years. They’re committed.”
Nuclear detection
Activity at the Pankovo test site in late July was flagged by analysts Decker Eveleth and Jeffrey Lewis of the Middlebury Institute of International Studies.
Testing operations were moved from the White Sea to Novaya Zemlya in 2021, a far more remote and secure location.
In August, according to the Barents Observer, Russian authorities issued a NOTAM (Notice to Airmen) warning to avoid the airspace west of Novaya Zemlya.
At the same time, a large number of fighter jets, transport aircraft, and helicopters appeared at Rogachevo Air Base on the island’s southwestern coast — including A-50 early-warning aircraft and Il-76 SKIP planes used for collecting electronic signals and missile telemetry.
Open-source aircraft trackers also recorded the presence of a U.S. WC-135 (“Constant Phoenix”) north of the Kola Peninsula and west of Novaya Zemlya — a specialized aircraft designed to detect radioactive isotopes released by nuclear explosions or reactor accidents.
The latest satellite imagery shows that Russian personnel have packed up equipment at the Novaya Zemlya site — suggesting that a test may have already taken place.
Putin’s statement that pointed to the Burevestnik
On October 10, speaking at a meeting of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), President Vladimir Putin remarked: “There will soon be an opportunity to announce new weapons, the existence of which has already been mentioned. We are in the final stages. They are already undergoing tests. And the tests are going well.”
Although Putin did not name specific weapons, observers widely interpreted his comments as a direct reference to the Burevestnik nuclear-powered cruise missile.
Previous reports had also indicated that Russia plans to deploy its new medium-range Oreshnik missiles in Belarus
— a claim later confirmed by Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko.
www.bankingnews.gr
American “fingerprints” on the Ukrainian strikes, together with the imminent delivery of Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine, have enraged Russia, which treats as a fait accompli the decision to deploy new, more powerful weapons in the conflict — weapons that are expected to produce a proportional response against the West.
A related preview was made on Friday 10/12 by Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Commonwealth of Independent States summit, where he spoke of “a new, immensely powerful Russian weapon that is currently in the testing phase.”
Bombshell: Direct US involvement in strikes on Russian oil facilities
US and Ukrainian officials who spoke to the Financial Times revealed that the United States is playing a decisive role in the ongoing major attacks on Russian energy infrastructure launched from Ukrainian territory.
American intelligence is reportedly provided to assist Ukrainian drone operators in planning flight paths and altitudes, selecting the optimal timing for strikes, and prioritising targets.
Sources said Washington views Ukrainian attacks on energy installations as a “tool” to undermine the Russian economy and to pressure Moscow into freezing the conflict on terms favourable to Western interests.
The revelations follow a statement by Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, who claimed it was “obvious” to Moscow that “the entire NATO and US infrastructure are being used to collect and transfer information to the Ukrainian side.”
NATO’s role in long-range Ukrainian strikes against Russia
NATO member states, including the United States, have played a central role supporting Ukrainian strikes on Russian targets since the full-scale hostilities began in 2022.
In February 2023 the Russian government asserted that the alliance’s entire satellite network and, more broadly, NATO military infrastructure, support Ukraine’s military efforts.
Already in February 2023 an official Kremlin statement said: “We see how the whole military infrastructure of NATO is working against Russia, and we see how all of NATO’s information infrastructure, including reconnaissance aviation and satellite systems, operates in Ukraine’s interest 24/7.”
This reportedly included the rapid provision of targeting data for missile and artillery strikes, which dealt heavy blows to Russian forces.
A secret CIA network at the heart of the war
Four months earlier, in October 2022, The New York Times reported that a “secret network” of the CIA was at the core of the conflict — referring to how the United States had established in Ukraine “a covert network of commandos and spies racing to provide weapons, intelligence, and training. CIA personnel continue to operate secretly in the country, primarily in the capital, Kyiv, directing much of the vast flow of information the United States shares with Ukrainian forces.”
“The signs of their covert support in logistics, training, and intelligence are tangible on the battlefield,” the Times noted.
“Commandos from other NATO countries, such as Britain, France, Canada, and Lithuania, are also working inside Ukraine training and advising Ukrainian forces and maintaining a constant link for weapons and other supplies,” the paper added, describing the scale of the secret effort to support Ukraine as “impressive.”
The indicators of this Western involvement have grown significantly over the past three years, including an increasing reliance on Western fighters on the front lines — such as the Polish Volunteer Corps and the American Projection Group.
“The Americans and the British hit Sudzha with HIMARS”
In March 2025, Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated that the United Kingdom and France had played a central role in a recent Ukrainian attack on Russian energy infrastructure — specifically on the Sudzha pipeline, which was “de facto destroyed” using HIMARS missile systems supplied by the United States.
“Targeting and navigation were facilitated through French satellites and British specialists who entered the target coordinates and launched the missiles. The order came from London,” the Ministry claimed.
Western officials have increasingly expressed their support for major strikes on Russian civilian infrastructure — in some cases aiming to render entire regions uninhabitable.
Targeting data from satellites and aircraft, on-the-ground assistance for the use of complex equipment, as well as the supply of missiles, drone components, industrial expertise, and funding, were all elements of this support.
Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service maintains that the Western objective behind the pressure for a ceasefire with Russia is to allow Ukraine to reorganise its forces and continue hostilities under more favourable conditions.
Global awe – Putin signals activation of the Burevestnik nuclear missile – Tomahawks look like toys in comparison
Meanwhile, Russia’s new Burevestnik nuclear cruise missile, a weapon said to possess global range, may soon be unveiled — an event expected to strike awe across the world.
According to Russian media outlets such as Lenta, this is the meaning behind President Vladimir Putin’s recent remark about responding to the delivery of Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine with “new, more powerful Russian weapons.”
Putin stated that a new weapon — which he did not name — would soon be revealed in the country.
Russian outlets emphasised that the president was referring to the completion of work on the Burevestnik missile.
“In 2025, there were indications of preparations for new tests — the closure of areas in Novaya Zemlya, increased transport aircraft activity, and indirect confirmations from industrial sources, though no official announcements,” Lenta reported.
The same sources linked Putin’s statement to the potential revival of a land-based version of the Kalibr missile system, codenamed Relief.
According to analysts, such a move would represent a logical response to the expansion of U.S. missile programmes.
The possibility of developing the Relief system was first discussed in 2019,
and production is believed to require limited time, since existing launchers could be adapted for a mobile platform.
The range of the land-based Kalibr is estimated at 2,600 kilometres.
At the same time, in August, the Barents Observer reported that the Burevestnik missile could soon undergo testing,
citing the closure of airspace near Novaya Zemlya
— a site used for nuclear weapons testing since the late 1950s.
Closer than ever to operational deployment of the Burevestnik
It is noted that the intense activity observed months earlier on Russia’s Novaya Zemlya archipelago pointed to an imminent test of the Burevestnik nuclear-powered cruise missile, known to NATO as Skyfall.
The Burevestnik — a complex system designed to carry a nuclear warhead and evade missile defences — has a troubled development history, including a fatal explosion in 2019.
The timing of the potential test, along with visits by senior Russian military and nuclear officials, indicates that the missile is nearing operational deployment, driven by Moscow’s desire for prestige and protection against U.S. missile defence systems.
In September, heightened activity was recorded across the barren Novaya Zemlya region: personnel movements, excavation trucks, containers, temporary housing units, heavy transport planes, helicopters, and cargo ships.
This activity was detected through satellite imagery, aircraft hazard notices, ship trackers, and open-source intelligence reports, coinciding with the long Arctic days and favourable weather — ideal conditions for construction at the Pankovo test range and the nearby air base.
Analysts of Russian weapons systems now anticipate a new Burevestnik cruise missile test.
“The operational sites for this system are almost ready. It will soon become an active system,” said Decker Eveleth, a researcher at the Center for Naval Analyses near Washington, after examining satellite images from July and August.
“This might have been the final check before operational testing and evaluation.”
Similarly, Pavel Podvig, a Geneva-based expert on arms control and Russia’s nuclear forces, commented: “I wouldn’t be surprised if the test has already taken place.”
Specifications
The missile — nicknamed Skyfall by NATO — has been in development for more than a decade.
It belongs to a new generation of weapons systems that Russian designers have focused on as the Kremlin pours resources into armament programmes, part of a partially acknowledged arms race, mainly against the United States.
Other systems in this category include the Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missile, the Poseidon nuclear-powered torpedo with a nuclear warhead, and the Avangard hypersonic glide vehicle.
Russian President Vladimir Putin unveiled several of these weapons during public ceremonies in 2018 and 2019.
The Kinzhal and Tsirkon missiles have already been deployed in Ukraine, while the Sarmat has undergone tests but suffered a serious accident last year.
The Burevestnik has drawn particular attention due to both its cutting-edge technology and its previous failures.
The missile is powered by a miniature nuclear reactor integrated into its engine, theoretically allowing it to remain airborne for days at a time.
According to a 2019 report from the Nuclear Threat Initiative, the missile “is designed to carry a nuclear warhead, circle the Earth at low altitude, evade missile defences and obstacles, and deliver its payload to a difficult-to-detect location.”
U.S. intelligence agencies have reported that the missile has been tested at least a dozen times, including in 2017 and 2019.
“Death at Nyonoksa”
One of the testing sites was the White Sea, west of the city of Arkhangelsk, near the port of Severodvinsk.
In August 2019, during an attempt to recover a Burevestnik from the seabed near the village of Nyonoksa, an explosion scattered radiation across a wide area, including Severodvinsk, killing at least five Russian nuclear specialists from the state atomic agency Rosatom, believed to have been leading the missile’s development.
U.S. officials concluded that the blast was “caused by a nuclear reaction during the recovery of the Russian nuclear-powered cruise missile.”
Two years earlier, another missile — also believed to be a Burevestnik — had crashed into the Barents Sea, west of Novaya Zemlya.
“They’ve been developing this system for over a decade, and it didn’t go well for a long time,” said Decker Eveleth.
“People died… and they didn’t give up. They kept going for fifteen years. They’re committed.”
Nuclear detection
Activity at the Pankovo test site in late July was flagged by analysts Decker Eveleth and Jeffrey Lewis of the Middlebury Institute of International Studies.
Testing operations were moved from the White Sea to Novaya Zemlya in 2021, a far more remote and secure location.
In August, according to the Barents Observer, Russian authorities issued a NOTAM (Notice to Airmen) warning to avoid the airspace west of Novaya Zemlya.
At the same time, a large number of fighter jets, transport aircraft, and helicopters appeared at Rogachevo Air Base on the island’s southwestern coast — including A-50 early-warning aircraft and Il-76 SKIP planes used for collecting electronic signals and missile telemetry.
Open-source aircraft trackers also recorded the presence of a U.S. WC-135 (“Constant Phoenix”) north of the Kola Peninsula and west of Novaya Zemlya — a specialized aircraft designed to detect radioactive isotopes released by nuclear explosions or reactor accidents.
The latest satellite imagery shows that Russian personnel have packed up equipment at the Novaya Zemlya site — suggesting that a test may have already taken place.
Putin’s statement that pointed to the Burevestnik
On October 10, speaking at a meeting of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), President Vladimir Putin remarked: “There will soon be an opportunity to announce new weapons, the existence of which has already been mentioned. We are in the final stages. They are already undergoing tests. And the tests are going well.”
Although Putin did not name specific weapons, observers widely interpreted his comments as a direct reference to the Burevestnik nuclear-powered cruise missile.
Previous reports had also indicated that Russia plans to deploy its new medium-range Oreshnik missiles in Belarus
— a claim later confirmed by Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko.
www.bankingnews.gr
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