Russian President Vladimir Putin oversaw a Yars intercontinental ballistic missile being test-launched on Thursday as part of nuclear drills, a video released by the country’s Defense Ministry showed.
The Kremlin said in a statement that “practical launches of ballistic and cruise missiles took place during the training.”
Russian Defense Minster Sergei Shoigu said that Moscow was rehearsing its ability to deliver a “massive” nuclear strike.
“[T]raining is being conducted to control the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, during which the tasks of delivering a massive nuclear strike by strategic offensive forces in response to an enemy nuclear strike will be worked out,” said Shoigu.
SERGEI GUNEYEV/POOL/AFP/Getty Images
Nuclear tensions have intensified amid Putin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The Russian leader has said he would be prepared to use nuclear weapons to defend Russian territory. Some Western officials have in the past expressed concern that Ukraine recapturing its annexed Black Sea peninsula, Crimea, would be a red line for Putin.
Russian state TV showed Shoigu speaking to Putin via video link.
“Practical launches of ballistic and cruise missiles took place during the training,” the Kremlin said in a statement.
The Kremlin said a Yars intercontinental ballistic missile was fired from the northwestern Plesetsk Cosmodrome to a test site in Russia’s far-eastern Kamchatka region. Another ballistic missile was fired from a nuclear-powered submarine in the Barents Sea, and air-launched cruise missiles were test-fired from Tu-95MS long-range bombers.
“In the course of the events, the level of preparedness of the military command authorities and the skills of the senior and operational staff in organizing subordinate troops were tested,” the Kremlin said. “The tasks planned in the course of the training exercise were fully accomplished.”
The drills were conducted as Russia’s upper parliament on Wednesday voted to revoke ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, a move that raises fears that Moscow will resume nuclear testing.
Newsweek has contacted Russia’s Foreign Ministry via email for comment.
The landmark Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty prohibits “any nuclear weapon test explosion or any other nuclear explosion” anywhere in the world. It was was adopted in 1996 by the UN General Assembly. The document was ratified by Russia, but not by the United States and China.
Moscow has maintained that it would not resume nuclear weapons testing unless Washington does so first.
Russia has justified revoking its withdrawal of the treaty by saying that Washington has signed but never ratified it.
Earlier in October, State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin said Moscow was pulling out from the treaty because of the “irresponsible attitude” of the U.S. to global security.
He said on his Telegram channel that Moscow had ratified the nuclear test ban treaty in 2000, but Washington had failed to do so because of its “irresponsible attitude to global security issues.”
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.