NEW DELHI: Vladimir Putin, the Russian President who recently earned the United States' ire over his "ready for nuclear war" statement, has now reportedly asked his officials to set up a nuclear power unit in space.

As per a report by Russia's state news agency TASS, Putin on Thursday (Mar 14) told his officials that space projects, including the construction of a nuclear power unit in space, must be a priority and should get proper financing.

This comes as last month CNN quoting sources reported that Moscow was trying to develop a nuclear space weapon with the capability to cripple a huge number of commercial and government satellites.

During a meeting with government members, ahead of the Russian presidential election, Putin said Russia has "good competencies and even has such reserves that we can be proud of, which we can count on in the future".

Speaking of a nuclear power unit that would operate in space as an example, Putin said, "We need to finance it on time."

"We just need to set priorities," he remarked, adding, "There are issues there that require additional attention."

This comes as, last week, Yuri Borisov, the head of Russia's space agency Roscosmos, revealed that Russia and China were working on a project that could see the installation of a nuclear projector on the Moon.

"It seems that we are all used to the fact that we have such competencies that other countries do not possess, but we need to pay special attention to them so that they develop and can be used in the future to solve those tasks that can and should be solved with the help of these technologies," said Putin.

During a youth festival on March 5, Yuri said: "Today, we are seriously considering a project to deliver to the moon and mount a power reactor there jointly with our Chinese partners somewhere between 2033 and 2035."

The potential Russian nuclear weapon is what military experts call a nuclear EMP. Such a weapon can be used to create a pulse of electromagnetic energy and a flood of highly charged particles that can tear through space and disrupt other satellites in the Earth's orbit.

According to CNN, officials from the Biden administration have publicly stated that such a space weapon is being developed by Russia but is yet to be launched into orbit. They cautioned that, if deployed, the nuclear space weapon would cross a hazardous threshold in the history of nuclear weapons and could cause unforeseen disruptions.