Russian nuclear maneuvers
This Tuesday, Russia began large-scale military maneuvers involving its nuclear forces, with simulated launches of ballistic and cruise missiles with atomic capabilities. The exercise lasts three days.
According to the Russian Ministry of Defense, 64 thousand soldiers, more than 200 missile launchers, 140 aircraft, 73 surface ships and 13 submarines participate. Of the latter, eight are equipped with intercontinental ballistic missiles with nuclear warheads. Moscow indicated that the practices focus on preparing nuclear forces for what it describes as a
“threat of aggression.”
The maneuvers include coordination with Belarus, a nation that hosts Russian nuclear weapons and where the Oreshnik missile system, intermediate range and atomic capacity, is deployed.
The deployment comes as Ukraine has stepped up its drone attacks on Russian territory. Recent bombings on the outskirts of Moscow left people dead and damaged industrial facilities, making it difficult for the Kremlin to maintain that the war does not affect the daily lives of the population.
President Vladimir Putin has reiterated since the start of the invasion in 2022 the warnings about the Russian nuclear arsenal as a deterrent so that the West does not expand its military support to kyiv. In 2024, Moscow updated its nuclear doctrine to consider any conventional aggression backed by a nuclear power as a joint attack, thus lowering the threshold for eventual use of nuclear weapons.




