Russian Defence Ministry Releases Footage of Topol Ballistic Missile Test Launch

The Russian Defence Ministry on Friday released a video showing a test launch of the Topol intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) from the Kapustin Yar site, located in the southern Astrakhan Region.

The video shows the missile being fired into the sky and eventually hiding behind the clouds.

The Russian Defence Ministry said in a statement on Thursday that it had successfully test-fired the Topol missile. The warhead had hit the simulated target in Kazakhstan, the military said.

The Topol-M is a strategic intercontinental ballistic missile system that was developed in the late 1980s and early 1990s. It normally carries an 800 kt warhead, which has the destructive power of 800,000 tonnes of TNT - it is 40 times the destructive power of the atomic bomb detonated over Nagasaki, Japan in 1945.