Putin Brags About Using Laser Weapons In Ukraine As Zelensky Sneers

Russia on Wednesday said it was using a new generation of powerful lasers in Ukraine to burn up drones, deploying some of Moscow's secret weapons to counter a flood of Western arms, Guy Faulconbridge reported for Reuters.

Photo Insert: Little is known about the specifics of the new laser. Putin mentioned one called Peresvet.

In 2018, Russian President Vladimir Putin unveiled an intercontinental ballistic missile, underwater nuclear drones, a supersonic weapon, and a laser weapon.

Little is known about the specifics of the new laser. Putin mentioned one called Peresvet, named after a medieval Orthodox warrior monk Alexander Peresvet who perished in mortal combat.

Yury Borisov, the deputy prime minister in charge of military development, told a conference in Moscow that Peresvet was already being widely deployed and it could blind satellites up to 1,500 km above Earth.

He said there were already more powerful systems than Peresvet that could burn up drones and other equipment. Borisov cited a test on Tuesday which he said had burned up a drone 5 km away within five seconds. The weapon was called Zadira.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy mockingly compared news of the lasers to the so-called wonder weapons that Nazi Germany unveiled in a bid to prevent defeat in World War II.

"The clearer it became that they had no chance in the war, the more propaganda there was about an amazing weapon that would be so powerful as to ensure a turning point," he said in a late night video address.

"And so we see that in the third month of a full-scale war, Russia is trying to find its 'wonder weapon' ... this all clearly shows the complete failure of the mission."

Almost nothing is publicly known about Zadira but in 2017 Russian media said state nuclear corporation Rosatom helped develop it as part of a program to create weapons-based new physical principles.

WEEKLY FEATURE : MVP Group Keeps Lights On During Pandemic