On Friday, November 28, 2025, at the Dombarovsky missile base (the closed city of ZATO Komarovsky), subordinate to the 13th Missile Division (Military Unit 68545) in Russia’s Orenburg Oblast, home to the Yasny missile test range, a catastrophic failure occurred involving a heavy intercontinental ballistic missile: either a UR-100NUTTH or, less likely, the newest RS-28 Sarmat. The authorities have not officially confirmed the type. Videos showing the missile exploding just after launch appeared on social media.
Detailed video of the failed launch of a Russian missile, likely a UR-100N, from the Yasny launch site near Orenburg. https://t.co/J8PSoOgzVK pic.twitter.com/UC8mrgIaOh
— Special Kherson Cat 🐈🇺🇦 (@bayraktar_1love) November 28, 2025
The missile successfully cleared the underground reinforced silo and climbed to about 200 meters, at which point an uncontrolled deviation in its flight trajectory occurred, followed by thrust disruption and, ultimately, a stall, a complete rotation around its own axis, and an explosion, during which the payload it was likely carrying separated. The remaining part of the missile, the burning rocket stages, fell to the ground, causing another explosion that produced a characteristic purple cloud of smoke typical of burning hypergolic liquid fuel based on nitrogen tetroxide (N₂O₄) and unsymmetrical dimethylhydrazine (UDMH), known as amyl and heptyl, both toxic.
The Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation and the Strategic Rocket Forces (RVSN) did not comment on the incident, but local authorities briefly stated that there was no threat to residents of the Orenburg Oblast (despite the explosion and the fire involving toxic rocket fuel).
Commentators claim that the missile that exploded was an older UR-100NUTTH (DIA/NATO: SS-19 Mod 3 Stiletto, GRAU index: 15A30), alternatively designated RS-18B, carrying a training Avangard hypersonic glide vehicle, in service since 2019.
According to less likely theories, it was the newest RS-28 Sarmat (SS-X-30 Satan 2, 15A28), which is intended to replace the R-36M2 Voyevoda (SS-18 Satan, 15A18). Four previous tests had already failed (the most recent on September 21, 2024), but all of them were conducted from the Plesetsk State Cosmodrome in Arkhangelsk Oblast, not from a missile base. Moreover, the first Sarmats were supposed to be delivered to the missile regiment located at the Uzhur-4 missile base in Krasnoyarsk Krai, where the 62nd Missile Division (Military Unit 32441) is stationed, and only later to the Dombarovsky base.
Baikonur incident
Today was not the only exceptionally unlucky day for Russian rockets. Yesterday, at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, after the launch of a Soyuz-2.1a carrier rocket (crewed mission MS-28) from launch complex 31/6 toward the International Space Station (ISS), a mobile service cabin responsible for servicing the lower part of the rocket before launch slipped into the flame trench beneath the pad, deforming service bridges, fuel lines, and access structures necessary for preparing the rocket for launch.
The issue is that Complex 31/6 was, at that moment, the only operational launch pad at the cosmodrome. The status of the next planned launch, the Soyuz-2.1a for the Progress MS-33 cargo mission, scheduled for December 19 of this year, remains unknown. The Russian space agency Roscosmos issued a statement saying it is assessing the situation, has the required spare parts, and expects repairs to be completed soon. According to some commentators, Russia may be concealing the true scale of the accident.