The claim
In one photo, Russian priests are seen supposedly blessing a rocket called “Satan.”
Our conclusion
The photo is not from Russia's current war against Ukraine, but is several years old. The rocket doesn’t even have the name “Satan,” not even as a nickname.
A photo is said to show two Russian Orthodox priests blessing a rocket on a vehicle, which paradoxically is also said to have the name “Satan”. Sharing the photo also suggests that it is a current photo in connection with Russia's war against Ukraine, but not only is the photo several years old, but the rocket doesn't even have "Satan" as a nickname.
The widespread photo
On Twitter in particular, a tweet with the photo received particular attention and was then shared frequently:
The tweet in German: “ I don’t think you’ll ever see greater craziness: Russian Orthodox Church leaders bless a rocket named Satan .”
The origin of the photo
The photo is definitely not current, it was posted on Reddit back in 2017 (see HERE ) with the description “ A Russian Orthodox priest at the baptism of a Topol-M nuclear intercontinental ballistic missile “. It is therefore clear that it has no connection with the war of aggression against Ukraine.
In fact, the description in the Reddit post is correct: in 2019, the photo also appeared with the label on the site of the Jamestown Foundation (see HERE ), a conservative defense think tank. This exact rocket can also be found on “Military Today” (see HERE

The Topol-M also has the designation RS-12M2, in the West it is known as the SS-27 Sickle-B.
And which rocket is called “Satan”?
At least not the Topol-M mentioned above. The R-36 rocket was given the nickname “Satan” (see HERE ), and NATO gave it the nickname “SS-18 Satan”. In 2016, its successor was introduced, the RS-28 Sarmat (see HERE ), which was nicknamed “Satan 2” by NATO.
Conclusion
Even if these Russian Orthodox priests had consecrated a rocket with the nickname “Satan,” this would not be paradoxical, because what can Russians do if NATO gives the rocket such a nickname?
It's also worth mentioning that although the photo is several years old and real, the Russian Orthodox Church has in recent years considered no longer blessing weapons of mass destruction ( HERE , HERE and HERE ).
Also interesting:
Disinformation about Ukraine is spread across the EU in many different languages, including Russian.
In some EU countries there are large Russian communities or a large part of the population understands Russian. Disinformation in Russian is spreading in the EU
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Notes:
1) This content reflects the current state of affairs at the time of publication. The reproduction of individual images, screenshots, embeds or video sequences serves to discuss the topic. 2) Individual contributions were created through the use of machine assistance and were carefully checked by the Mimikama editorial team before publication. ( Reason )

