Putin Responds to Trump’s No-Show With Full Nuclear Force Rehearsal

Russian leader Vladimir Putin personally oversaw a large-scale nuclear forces exercise via video link on Tuesday, the Kremlin said on October 22.

During the drill, Russia launched  a Yars intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome toward the Kura test range in Kamchatka.

A Sineva submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) was fired from the nuclear-powered submarine Bryansk in the Barents Sea, while Tu-95MS strategic bombers carried out air-launched cruise missile strikes.

“The training checked the readiness of command and control structures and the practical skills of operational personnel in directing subordinate forces. All assigned tasks were completed,” the Kremlin’s statement said.

The exercise involved all three elements of Russia’s nuclear “triad”—its land-based, sea-based, and air-based strategic systems.

Earlier, Russia officially terminated a bilateral agreement with the United States on the disposal of weapons-grade plutonium, a move that further deepens the dismantling of nuclear arms control frameworks between the two countries.

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