Russia said Tuesday its army held fresh nuclear drills under the supervision of President Vladimir Putin, who recently called for changes to rules on the use of Moscow’s nuclear deterrent.
Putin has raised the prospect of using nuclear weapons during Moscow’s offensive in Ukraine several times and last month suggested Russia broaden its rules on using nuclear weaponry.
Russia’s defence ministry said a “training exercise was conducted with the forces and means of the land, maritime and aviation components of the strategic deterrent force” and that an “intercontinental ballistic missile was launched.”
The ministry said the missile was launched at a test site in the far-eastern Kamchatka peninsula.
Other missiles were launched from a submarine in the Barents Sea in the Arctic and from the Sea of Okhotsk in the Russian Far East.
The ministry said the drills were conducted successful and that the missiles had “reached their targets.”
The TASS news industry published footage of a missile being launched in the Plesetsk cosmodrome in the Russian Far-North.
In September, Putin suggested that Moscow change its nuclear doctrine to allow it to unleash a nuclear response in the event of a “massive” air attack.
Under the proposed rules, Russia would also consider any attack by a non-nuclear country supported by a nuclear power as a joint attack by both, in a seeming reference to Ukraine.
The plans came as Ukraine is seeking authorisation to use long-range missiles against Russia, which has so far been met by US reluctance.
