Russia conducts wide-ranging missile tests after announcing progress on new nuclear weapons, coinciding with the postponement of U.S.–Russia talks in Budapest.
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Oct. 22 directed a wide-ranging exercise of the country’s strategic nuclear forces, including the test launch of intercontinental ballistic and cruise missiles. The drills followed his recent announcement that Moscow is actively developing new nuclear weapons.
The exercises involved all components of Russia’s nuclear triad: land, sea, and air, according to Russian state-owned news agency TASS. They coincided with the postponement of a planned summit between Putin and U.S. President Donald Trump in Budapest.
The drills featured the launch of a Yars intercontinental ballistic missile from the Plesetsk facility in northwestern Russia and a Sineva submarine-launched ballistic missile fired from the Bryansk strategic nuclear missile submarine in the Barents Sea. Strategic Tu-95MS bombers also took part, launching long-range cruise missiles at designated targets, according to a Kremlin statement.
“The exercise evaluated the readiness of military command bodies and the operational staff’s proficiency in organising and managing the troops (forces) under their command,” the Kremlin said. “All training objectives were successfully accomplished.”
Putin, speaking from the Kremlin’s command center, said the maneuvers were scheduled and part of routine preparedness drills.
“Today, we have a scheduled strategic nuclear forces management drill, as the defense minister just reported. Let’s get to work,” he told officers during a briefing, TASS reported. He oversaw similar nuclear drills in 2024 and 2023, on both occasions in October.
Recently, Putin said that Russia is “very actively” developing and testing nuclear weapons, adding, the “novelty of our nuclear deterrence capabilities is higher than” any other nuclear power.
Long-Range Capabilities
Although billed as routine, Russia’s nuclear exercise came just hours after Trump announced that his planned meeting with Putin in Budapest had been put on hold. The summit—expected to focus on a possible cease-fire framework in Ukraine—was delayed, Trump said, because he did not want it to be a “waste of time.”
The decision followed an Oct. 21 call between U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, who later explained Moscow’s opposition to an immediate cease-fire in Ukraine.
Lavrov said that he believes that a cease-fire would allow Kyiv to rearm and “encourage its terrorist activities,” referring to Ukraine’s strikes on Russian energy infrastructure, according to TASS.
By Tom Ozimek
