The drills included practice firing of several key long-range missiles. The Russian government, also commonly referred to as the Kremlin, said in a statement that the exercises tested the skills of military command structures. Read on for more on this.
Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Russian president Vladimir Putin on Wednesday ordered drills of the country’s strategic nuclear forces amid an ongoing war with Ukraine and flaring tensions with the West. The drills included practice firing of several key long-range missiles. The Russian government, also commonly referred to as the Kremlin, said in a statement that the exercises tested the skills of military command structures. The tests come at a time Putin’s planned meeting with United States president Donald Trump to discuss peace in Ukraine has been indefinitely shelved.
Key long-range missiles test-fired
The Kremlin said that a Yars intercontinental ballistic missile was test-fired from a launch facility in northwestern Russia and a Sineva ICBM was launched from a submarine into the Barents Sea. As part of the exercises, long-range cruise missiles were also fired from Tu-95 strategic bombers. Russia’s chief of the military’s general staff, Valery Gerasimov, reported on the drills to Putin via video conferencing, also attended by the defence minister Andrei Belousov. While the timing of the drills seems questionable, Putin has reportedly stated they had been planned in advance.
Trump-Putin meeting called off
Last week, Trump had announced plans to meet Putin in the Hungarian capital Budapest. However, after some deliberation, the US president said the plan had been put on hold and that he did not want to have a “wasted” meeting. That decision was made following a call between top US diplomat Marco Rubio and Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov. Trump has been making on and off attempts to end the yearslong conflict in Ukraine, which has been raging since Russia launched an invasion of its neighbour in early 2022.
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