Russia Deploys Warship to Atlantic Armed With Hypersonic Zircon Missiles

Russian President Vladimir Putin announced on January 4 that a frigate armed with hypersonic Zircon cruise missiles—weaponry he says has “no analogues”—will be deployed to the Atlantic Ocean.

• Zircon cruise missiles were successfully tested in May 2022.
• The nuclear-capable missiles can travel 625 miles.
• They travel at nine times the speed of sound (7,000 miles per hour) and can evade even the United States’ most advanced missile defense systems.

The Admiral Gorshkov is a new class of Russian frigate armed with an array of Zircon and other missiles.

The ship is equipped with the latest hypersonic missile system—“Zircon”—which has no analogues. This is a hypersonic sea-based system.
—Vladimir Putin

Pro-Kremlin political analyst Sergei Markov said the deployment is “a message to the West that Russia has nuclear-tipped missiles that can easily pierce any missile defenses.”

Watch Europe: The notion of America being unable to defend itself against some of Russia’s most formidable nuclear missiles is alarming. But the more important region to watch for a response to Russia’s increasing military power and belligerence is Europe.

In 2014, shortly after Russia annexed Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula and invaded the nation’s east, Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry discussed the effect such moves would have on Europe, and he placed it in the context of Bible prophecy:

We have been prophesying for around 70 years that Eastern Europe would become a vital part of a new European superpower—a resurrection of the Holy Roman Empire. This prophecy is directly related to the Crimean crisis! The fear you see in Europe because of events in Crimea is going to cause 10 leaders in Europe to unite in a sudden and dramatic way—and in precise accordance with the Bible’s description of that European empire! … Europe’s new fear of Russia is going to play a major role in hastening the fulfillment of that prophecy!
—“The Crimean Crisis Is Reshaping Europe!”

The Europeans are deeply rattled by Russia’s war on Ukraine. They are also disturbed by Putin’s increasingly antagonistic nuclear posturing and his deployment of unfathomably destructive weaponry, such as the Admiral Gorshkov and its Zircon missiles. The fear of Russia that is now growing stronger among many Europeans is intensifying their desire to unify Europe, politically and militarily. They believe that within a unified European bloc, they will be better able to stand up to the rising Russian threat.