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MOSCOW – Russia on Saturday successfully tested its Topol strategic missile with a new warhead designed to breach missile shields, Russian news agencies reported, citing the defense ministry.

“The experimental warhead of the missile hit the designated target with high precision at the testing site on Kamchatka peninsula,” a spokesman for the strategic rocket forces told the Interfax news agency.

The Topol intercontinental missile used has been operational for 23 years and was being tested to check its durability in extended use, the spokesman said. The missile was fired from the Plesetsk cosmodrome in the northwestern Arkhangelsk region to its target area around 3,730 miles to the east.