Russia’s President Vladimir Putin announced the exercise: “Given the growing geopolitical tensions and the emergence of new external threats and risks, it is important to have modern and constantly ready-to-use strategic forces.”
Russian Defence Minister Andrei Belousov added in a statement that the purpose of the drill was to simulate “a massive nuclear strike by strategic offensive forces in response to a nuclear strike by the enemy.”
Reuters notes in its report that the test-firing occurred at “a critical moment in the Russia-Ukraine war, after weeks of Russian signals to the West that Moscow will respond if the United States and its allies allow Kyiv to fire longer-range missiles deep into Russia.”
Russian references to nuclear activity cause widespread unease among Western leaders. On a recent visit to Beijing, the President of Finland asked China to assist in de-escalating Russian nuclear activity, Euronews reported. “[…] it is very difficult to trust President Putin, especially when it comes to nuclear weapons, and that’s why it’s extremely important that a major power such as China keeps on having dialog with Russia and make sure that we can de-escalate as much as possible,” Finland’s President Alexander Stubb told reporters after meeting with China’s President Xi Jinping.
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