Russian President Vladimir supervised the drills of the country’s strategic nuclear forces.
Putin said in his televised remarks from the crisis command room in the Kremlin yesterday that they have a scheduled strategic nuclear forces management drill.
Addressing online the top military leadership, he underscored that the current drills are scheduled involving land, sea and air-based strategic nuclear forces.
According to a Kremlin release, practical launches of intercontinental ballistic missiles and air-based cruise missiles were carried out during the drill.
The exercise was held under the supervision of President Putin and involved Yars ICBM (intercontinental ballistic missile) launchers, the strategic nuclear-powered submarine Bryansk of the Northern Fleet and Tu-95MS strategic bombers, the Kremlin specified.
The Kremlin said the drills tested the readiness of military command-and-control systems and the operational skills of the staff, adding that all objectives were met.
The Kremlin said that as part of the maneuvers involving all parts of Moscow’s nuclear triad, a Yars intercontinental ballistic missile was test-fired from the Plesetsk launch facility in northwestern Russia, and a Sineva ICBM was launched by a submarine in the Barents Sea.
The drills also involved Tu-95 strategic bombers firing long-range cruise missiles.
The exercise tested the skills of military command structures, the Kremlin said in a statement.
The chief of the military’s General Staff, Gen. Valery Gerasimov, reported to Putin via video link that the drills were intended to “practice procedures for authorizing the use of nuclear weapons.”
Putin, sitting alone at a round white table, faced big screens showing Gerasimov and Defense Minister Andrei Belousov. All three men would be involved in launching nuclear weapons in case of conflict.
While Putin emphasized that the maneuvers had been planned in advance, they came hours after President Donald Trump said Tuesday his plan for a swift meeting with Putin in Budapest was on hold because he didn’t want it to be a “waste of time.”
The decision about the meeting in Budapest, Hungary, which Trump had announced last week, was made following a call Monday between U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.
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US and EU slap new sanctions on Moscow.
Meanwhile, as Washington urged Moscow to agree to an immediate ceasefire in its war against Ukraine, the Trump administration on Wednesday placed new sanctions on Russia’s two biggest oil corporations.
For weeks, Trump had hinted that he could punish Russia for extending the conflict, but until Wednesday, he had not taken any significant action.
While claiming that he had “cancelled” the planned Budapest meeting with Putin, Trump said he “felt it was time” for the sanctions, noting he “waited a long time” to impose them.
In a statement released on Wednesday, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced that the moment had come for “an immediate ceasefire and to stop the killing.”
Interestingly, the latest sanctions from the US on Moscow come amid Trump’s shifting stance on key issues in the conflict, including whether a ceasefire should come before longer-term peace talks and whether Ukraine could win back land seized by Russia during almost four years of fighting.
The EU on Wednesday also slapped its first-ever ban on imports of Russian liquefied natural gas (LNG) as of 1 January 2027.
A Yars intercontinental ballistic missile is test-fired from the Plesetsk launch facility in northwestern Russia as part of drills of Russia’s nuclear forces. (Oct. 22, 2025.)