Moscow: Russian President Vladimir Putin oversaw ballistic missile drills remotely, the Kremlin said on Wednesday (October 25), which came hours after the country's move to revoke a key nuclear arms control treaty. “Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Federation Armed Forces Vladimir Putin led a training exercise that involved the forces and resources of the ground, sea and air components of Russia’s nuclear deterrence forces,” the Kremlin said in a statement. “The exercise included practical launches of ballistic and cruise missiles,” it added.
The drills came 20 months into Moscow's war against Ukraine.
Detailing the test, the statement said that a Yars intercontinental ballistic missile was launched from the Plesetsk state testing cosmodrome to hit the Kura training ground in Kamchatka.
“A Sineva ballistic missile was launched from the Tula strategic nuclear missile submarine in the Barents Sea. The training exercise also involved Tu-95MS long-range aircraft, which fired air-launched cruise missiles. The practical launches were controlled from the National Defence Control Centre of the Russian Federation,” it said.
Why was the testing done?
According to the Kremlin, the purpose of the exercise was to check the level of preparedness of military command bodies, as well as the skill of the leadership and operational personnel in managing the troops (forces) under their command.
“The objectives of the exercise were achieved in full,” it said.
The exercise comes after Russia's upper House of the Parliament, the Federal Council, approved the revocation of the ratification of Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban treaty.
The treaty signed in 1996 outlaws all nuclear explosions including testing of nuclear weapons, however, it did not come into effect.
