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Russia President Vladimir Putin conducts a strategic nuclear forces exercise via videoconference from the Presidential Situation Centre at the Kremlin in Moscow, on October 22, 2025.
| Photo Credit: AP
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday (October 22, 2025) directed drills of the country’s strategic nuclear forces that featured practice missile launches, an exercise that came as his planned summit on Ukraine with U.S. President Donald Trump was put on hold.
The Kremlin said that as part of the maneuvers involving all parts of Moscow’s nuclear triad, a Yars intercontinental ballistic missile was test-fired from the Plesetsk launch facility in northwestern Russia, and a Sineva ICBM was launched by a submarine in the Barents Sea. The drills also involved Tu-95 strategic bombers firing long-range cruise missiles.
The exercise tested the skills of military command structures, the Kremlin said in a statement.
The chief of the military’s General Staff, Gen. Valery Gerasimov, reported to Mr. Putin via video link that the drills were intended to simulate “procedures for authorising the use of nuclear weapons.”
While Mr. Putin emphasised that the maneuvers had been planned in advance, they came hours after President Donald Trump said Tuesday (October 21) his plan for a swift meeting with Mr. Putin in Budapest was on hold because he didn’t want it to be a “waste of time.”
The decision about the meeting in Budapest, Hungary, which Mr. Trump had announced last week, was made following a call Monday (October 20) between U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.
Mr. Lavrov made clear in comments Tuesday (October 21) that Russia is opposed to an immediate ceasefire in Ukraine. Mr. Trump, meanwhile, has been shifting his stance all year on key issues in the conflict, including whether a ceasefire should come before longer-term peace talks, and whether Ukraine could win back land seized by Russia during almost four years of fighting.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Wednesday (October 22) emphasised that the planned Putin-Trump summit needs to be thoroughly prepared.
“No one wants to waste time: neither President Trump nor President Putin,” Mr. Peskov told reporters. “These are the two presidents who are accustomed to working efficiently with high productivity. But effectiveness always requires preparation.”
Published – October 22, 2025 07:01 pm IST
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Putin directs drills of Russian nuclear forces as his Budapest summit with Trump is put on hold
