Important Takeaways:

• Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday launched a massive exercise of the country’s nuclear forces featuring missile launches in a simulation of a retaliatory strike, as he continued to flex the country’s nuclear muscle amid spiraling tensions with the West over Ukraine.
• Speaking in a video call with military leaders, Putin said that the drills would simulate top officials’ action in using nuclear weapons and include launches of nuclear-capable ballistic and cruise missiles.
• Defense Minister Andrei Belousov reported that the exercise is intended to practice “strategic offensive forces launching a massive nuclear strike in response to a nuclear strike by the enemy.”
• Putin, who has repeatedly brandished the nuclear sword as he seeks to deter the West from ramping up support for Ukraine, emphasized on Tuesday that Russia’s nuclear arsenal remains a “reliable guarantor of the country’s sovereignty and security.”
• Putin noted that Moscow will continue to modernize its nuclear forces, deploying new missiles that have a higher precision, quicker launch times and increased capabilities to overcome missile defenses.
• As part of Tuesday’s drills, the military test-fired a Yars intercontinental ballistic missile from the Plesetsk launch pad at the Kura testing range on the Kamchatka Peninsula, the Defense Ministry said. The Novomoskovsk and Knyaz Oleg nuclear submarines test-fired ICBMs from the Barents Sea and the Sea of Okhotsk, while nuclear-capable Tu-95 strategic bombers carried out practice launches of long-range cruise missiles.
• The ministry said that all the missiles reached their designated targets.

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