President Putin has kicked off a large exercise of Russia’s nuclear forces amid increasing tension over the West’s military involvement in the war in Ukraine.
“Taking into account growing geopolitical tensions and emerging new threats and risks, it’s important for us to have modern strategic forces that are always ready for combat,” Putin said in a video call with military leaders that was broadcast on state media. He said nuclear weapons were an “extremely exceptional measure”.
A Yars intercontinental ballistic missile was launched from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in northwest Russia at a test range thousands of miles away in the country’s far east region, the defence ministry said.
Putin announces nuclear exercises
Sineva and Bulava ballistic missiles were also fired from submarines in the Barents and Okhotsk Seas, while