The exercise involved the entire Russian nuclear “triad” of land-, sea- and air-launched missiles.

Russian President Vladimir Putin launched an exercise of the country’s nuclear forces including missile launches in a simulated retaliatory strike amid growing tensions with the West over Ukraine.

“Given the growing geopolitical tensions and the emergence of new external threats and risks, it is important to have modern and constantly ready strategic forces,” Putin said Tuesday, announcing the exercise.

In televised remarks, Defense Minister Andrei Belousov told Putin that the aim of the exercise was to practice launching “a massive nuclear strike by strategic offensive forces in response to a nuclear strike by the enemy “.

The exercise involved the entire Russian nuclear “triad” of land, sea and air missiles.

A Yars intercontinental ballistic missile was launched from the Plesetsk cosmodrome in northwest Russia to Kamchatka, a peninsula in the Far East. Sineva and Bulava ballistic missiles were fired from submarines and cruise missiles were launched from strategic bombers, the Defense Ministry said.

The missile exercise came at a critical moment in the Russo-Ukrainian war, after weeks of Russian signals to the West that Moscow would respond if the United States and its allies allowed kyiv to fire missiles at more long range deep in Russia.

On Monday, NATO said North Korea had sent troops to western Russia, a claim Moscow has not denied. Last week, Putin said Moscow’s implementation of its partnership treaty with Pyongyang was its own business.

The two-and-a-half-year-old war is also entering what Russian officials say is its most dangerous phase, as the West considers ways to consolidate Ukraine while Russian forces advance into eastern Ukraine. country.

Putin stressed Tuesday that Russia’s nuclear arsenal remains a “reliable guarantor of the country’s sovereignty and security.”

“Given growing geopolitical tensions and new emerging threats and risks, it is important for us to have modern strategic forces, always ready for combat,” he said, reaffirming that Russia considers the use of weapons nuclear weapons as “the ultimate and extreme measure to guarantee its security.

The exercise follows an Oct. 18 exercise in the Tver region, northwest of Moscow, involving field movements of a unit equipped with the Yars intercontinental ballistic missile capable of striking U.S. cities.

Since the start of the war, Putin has sent a series of precise signals to the West, changing Russia’s position on key nuclear treaties and announcing the deployment of tactical nuclear missiles to neighboring Belarus.

Ukraine has accused Putin of nuclear blackmail. NATO says it will not be intimidated by Russian threats.

Last month, the Kremlin leader approved changes to official nuclear doctrine, expanding the list of scenarios in which Moscow would consider using such weapons.

Under the changes, Russia would view any attack against it backed by a nuclear power as a joint attack — a warning to the United States not to help Ukraine strike deep into Russia with conventional weapons.

Putin said Russia did not need to use nuclear weapons to achieve victory in Ukraine.

Russia is the largest nuclear power in the world. U.S. officials say they have seen no change in Russia’s nuclear deployment posture during the war. Together, Russia and the United States control 88% of the world’s nuclear warheads.

In 2022, the United States became so concerned about Russia’s possible use of tactical nuclear weapons that it warned Putin of consequences for CIA Director Bill Burns.