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Vladimir Putin has carried out exercises with his Yars nuclear missiles launched on the road in a forest in western Siberia.
Their range of 7,500 miles means they are capable of hitting the UK or anywhere in Europe.
The tests come amid intense tension with the West over the war in Ukraine and against the backdrop of Putin propagandists’ almost daily threats to deploy atomic weapons.
In a statement, the Russian defense ministry said: “More than 100 pieces of hardware are involved in the exercise.
“Launch vehicles of mobile road missile systems Yars of the Russian Strategic Missile Forces” The missile formation of Novosibirsk has trained the redistribution during a scheduled drill.
“While performing their maneuvers, missile units and detachments dispersed into a forest to increase concealment.”
They were trained to kill simulated saboteurs, recognize the launch area and go through “contaminated” areas, the defense ministry said.
Vladimir Putin alerted his nuclear forces before the war with Ukraine (Image: AFP via Getty)
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The Russian invasion of Ukraine has triggered the most serious crisis in Russia-West relations since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, when many people feared the world was on the brink of a nuclear war.
Putin alerted his nuclear forces before the war with Ukraine and regular drills are held.
This week, one of his closest allies told the United States that attempts by the West to punish a nuclear power like Russia for war in Ukraine ran the risk of endangering humanity.
Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said attempts to use the courts or tribunals to investigate the country’s actions in Ukraine would be futile and would run the risk of global devastation.
Medvedev, who now serves as deputy chairman of the Russian Security Council, told Telegram: “The idea of punishing a country that has one of the greatest nuclear potentials is absurd. And it potentially poses a threat to the existence of humanity. ‘
Dmitry Medvedev photographed next to Putin (Image: Reuters)
While president from 2008 to 2012, Medvedev presented himself as a reformer who wanted better relations with the West.
But since President Vladimir Putin ordered the February 24 invasion, he has reformulated himself as a supporter of the Kremlin’s hard line.
Medvedev wrote in a long diatribe: “The whole history of the United States since the times of submission of the native Indian population represents a series of bloody wars.
‘Was anyone held responsible for these crimes? Which court condemned the sea of blood shed by the US there? ‘
He concluded: ‘It will not work with Russia, they know it well. That’s why the rotten dogs of war bark in such a disgusting way. ‘
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