Russia Activates Nuclear Missile Test Range Days Before Moscow’s May 9 Parade

Russia announced new missile testing activity at the Kura military range in Kamchatka just days before the May 9 Victory Day parade in Moscow, according to regional authorities on May 6.

Officials warned civilians that access to the range would be prohibited from May 6 to May 10, including restrictions on all vehicles and equipment movements. The site is used by Russia to test ballistic missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads.

As noted by Militarnyi, the Kura range is one of the key components of Russia’s strategic missile testing infrastructure and has long been used for launches tied to the country’s nuclear deterrence forces.

“Russia’s Defense Ministry warns residents of the region about tests at the Kura range in the Ust-Kamchatsky district from May 6 through May 10,” the regional emergency ministry stated.

Located roughly 500 kilometers north of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, the Kura range serves as an impact zone for intercontinental ballistic missile tests launched from various parts of Russia.

According to Militarnyi, the facility was established in the early 1950s and became one of the Soviet Union’s primary remote missile testing areas.

The site was first used in 1956 during tests involving the prototype R-7 intercontinental ballistic missile, the same platform that later became the basis for the Soviet space program. More than 300 missile tests were reportedly conducted there during the Soviet era.

Following the collapse of the USSR, activity at the range sharply declined before resuming in the early 2000s, including submarine-launched ballistic missile testing, Militarnyi reports.

One of the range’s most significant milestones came in 2005, when the Bulava submarine-launched ballistic missile successfully struck a target at Kura for the first time. The missile was designed to arm Russia’s next-generation strategic nuclear submarines.

According to Militarnyi, Russia’s Northern and Pacific Fleets currently operate seven nuclear-powered submarines carrying Bulava missiles, with each submarine capable of deploying up to 16 missiles.

The Kura range has also played a central role in testing Russia’s heavy Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missile, viewed as the successor to the Soviet-era R-36 system. The first Sarmat launch took place in April 2022, when the missile traveled from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome to Kamchatka.

Militarnyi also noted that the range has repeatedly been used during large-scale strategic deterrence exercises involving all three branches of Russia’s nuclear triad — land-based missiles, strategic bombers, and nuclear submarines.

In February 2022, only days before the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Russia conducted strategic deterrence drills involving Yars and Sineva ballistic missile launches aimed at the Kura range, while Tu-95MS strategic bombers launched cruise missiles as part of the exercise.

Another major nuclear forces exercise followed in October 2022, simulating a massive retaliatory nuclear strike. Similar drills involving Yars and Sineva missile launches were repeated in 2023 and 2024.

One of the latest publicly announced tests occurred in April 2025, when the nuclear-powered submarine Krasnoyarsk, a Project 885M Yasen-M vessel, reportedly launched a Kalibr cruise missile at a target on the Kamchatka range from a distance exceeding 1,100 kilometers, according to the Russian Defense Ministry.

Earlier, Russia conducted large-scale exercises of its Strategic Missile Forces (RVSN) in Siberia involving mobile Yars missile systems capable of carrying nuclear warheads.

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