MOSCOW – Trucks carrying intercontinental ballistic missiles rumbled over forest roads, atomic-powered submarines set sail from Arctic and Pacific ports, and crews scrambled into warplanes as Russia and neighboring Belarus held the final stage of their joint nuclear drills Thursday.
Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko inspected Russian short-range nuclear-capable Iskander ballistic missiles at a military unit involved in the drills, declaring: “I dreamed about this machine a long time ago.”
The three-day drills that began Tuesday come amid a surge in Ukrainian drone strikes. including on Moscow's suburbs that killed three people and damaged several buildings and industrial facilities. The strikes made it harder for officials in the Kremlin to cast the conflict in Ukraine — now in its fifth year — as something so distant that it doesn’t affect the daily routines of Russian civilians.
Russia's Defense Ministry said the exercise involved 64,000 troops, over 200 missile launchers, more than 140 aircraft, 73 surface warships and 13 submarines, including eight armed with nuclear-tipped ICBMs. The drills will focus on the “preparation and use of nuclear forces under the threat of aggression,” it said.
The drills also practice cooperation with Belarus, an ally that hosts Russian nuclear weapons. Russian arsenals in Belarus include its latest intermediate range nuclear-capable Oreshnik missile system.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly reminded the world about Moscow’s nuclear arsenals after sending troops into Ukraine in February 2022 to try to deter the West from ramping up support for Kyiv.
In 2024, Putin adopted a revised nuclear doctrine, noting that any nation’s conventional attack on Russia that is supported by a nuclear power will be considered a joint attack on his country. That threat was clearly aimed at discouraging the West from allowing Ukraine to strike Russia with longer-range weapons and appears to significantly lower the threshold for the possible use of Moscow’s nuclear arsenal.
The revised doctrine that placed Belarus under the Russian nuclear umbrella. Putin has said that Moscow will retain control of its nuclear weapons deployed in Belarus but would allow its ally to select the targets in case of conflict.