Russia faces issues with the Sarmat ballistic missile; it won't launch without Ukrainian engineers, according to Business Insider.

The new Russian intercontinental ballistic missile "Sarmat" has been struggling to complete its testing phase, with most attempts ending in failure. Previously, Russia leveraged Ukrainian expertise in the development of this type of missile. However, the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2014 and its full-scale offensive in 2022 cut Russia off from Ukrainian knowledge in missile production, as reported by Business Insider.

"Historically, many factories and personnel involved in the production of intercontinental ballistic missiles were based in Ukraine," said Timothy Wright, a missile expert at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, to Business Insider.

According to him, the Russians lack experience with liquid engines, and he described the choice of such an engine for the "Sarmat" as "very strange":

"This is something that Ukrainians used to do for them. This is one of the reasons why they are facing numerous issues [with the new missile]."

Putin's propagandists have threatened to use the "Sarmat" to wipe Britain and Strasbourg, home to the European Parliament, off the map. However, a series of tests have failed: Russia lacks the necessary competencies for this type of missile, which has been developed by Ukrainian design bureaus since Soviet times, experts say.

Ukraine became independent after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, but its defense industry continued to intertwine with Russia's. Ukraine possesses experience in nuclear and missile technologies, as well as knowledge in their production.

RS-28 "Sarmat" is a fifth-generation strategic complex featuring a heavy intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) with a liquid engine; it is intended to replace the Soviet R-36 "Voivoda" missiles, which have been produced in various modifications since the 1970s. Liquid-fueled missiles were developed under the guidance of the Yuzhnoye Design Bureau in Dnipro.

After 2014, all military contacts between Ukraine and Russia were severed.

A significant question remains whether Russia has specialists with the necessary knowledge to develop the "Sarmat," believes Fabian Hoffman, a missile expert from the Nuclear Project in Oslo.

"Everyone who worked on the previous missile has either retired or passed away. Some are still in Ukraine, which played a crucial role in the Russian ICBM program," he told Business Insider. "So this is a serious problem."

The development of the "Sarmat" has been plagued by constant delays, points out Starchak. Initial tests were supposed to occur in 2015 but only took place two years later. The first test launch occurred in April 2022, which turned out to be the only successful one.

The missile was expected to be commissioned in 2018, but that deadline has been continually pushed back.

In 2018, Putin claimed that this complex could overcome all modern air defense systems, stating, "There are no analogs in the world, and there won't be for a long time."

The Ministry of Defense asserted that the "Sarmat" is the most powerful missile with the longest range in the world, possessing "unique characteristics" that allow it to "guarantee overcoming" any missile defense systems.

At the beginning of the war in Ukraine, propagandist Dmitry Kiselev showcased a simulation in his program of how Britain would supposedly be destroyed by the "world's most powerful" nuclear missile "Sarmat." "It's just one launch, Boris," Kiselev said, addressing then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson. "And England is no more."

In 2024, State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin wrote that the flight time of the "Sarmat" to Strasbourg is 3 minutes and 20 seconds, in response to the European Parliament's resolution calling for strikes on Russian territory using long-range Western missiles.

However, it seems that Russia simply lacks the means to obliterate England and France. The only successful test of the "Sarmat" was conducted in April 2022 in Putin's presence, while four other attempts ended in failure, analysts from the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) reported in September 2024.

Their report was drafted after satellite images indicated yet another failed missile launch from the Plesetsk cosmodrome in the Arkhangelsk region. One of the images showed significant destruction and a crater at the site of the "Yubileynaya" launch silo, where previous tests of the "Sarmat" had taken place, as well as four fire trucks extinguishing a blaze near the destroyed silo, ISW noted.