{"id":52037,"date":"2022-02-18T12:57:36","date_gmt":"2022-02-18T12:57:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/uncategorized\/2022\/02\/18\/russia-to-stage-massive-nuclear-drills-amid-ukraine-standoff\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T08:38:25","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T08:38:25","slug":"russia-to-stage-massive-nuclear-drills-amid-ukraine-standoff","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/flashpoints\/2022\/02\/18\/russia-to-stage-massive-nuclear-drills-amid-ukraine-standoff\/","title":{"rendered":"Russia to stage massive nuclear drills amid Ukraine standoff"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Russian military on Friday announced massive drills of its strategic nuclear forces, a stark reminder of the country\u2019s nuclear might amid Western fears that Moscow might be preparing <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/russia-ukraine-joe-biden-europe-russia-moscow-c2e55b8b2b061b58e2b140d2a6dc1d57\">to invade Ukraine<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Russian President Vladimir Putin will personally oversee Saturday\u2019s exercise, which will involve multiple practice launches of intercontinental ballistic missiles and cruise missiles, the Defense Ministry said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Putin would observe the drills from the Defense Ministry\u2019s situation room and supervise the practice missile launches himself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The ministry said it planned the maneuvers some time ago to check the readiness of Russia\u2019s military command and personnel, as well as the reliability of its nuclear and conventional weapons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The war games follow U.S. President Joe <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/russia-ukraine-europe-russia-united-states-moscow-029f7416b35e905901ea10bf3019dafb\">Biden\u2019s warning <\/a>on Thursday that Russia could invade Ukraine within days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Western fears focus on <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/russia-ukraine-europe-russia-belarus-0b5ca81d822671b5ef2c514bf531505c\">an estimated 150,000 Russian troops<\/a> \u2014 including about 60% of Russia\u2019s overall ground forces \u2014 concentrated near Ukraine\u2019s borders. The Kremlin insists it has no plans to invade.<\/p>\n\n\n\t<aside class=\"smg-interstitial-link wp-block-smg-interstitial-link\">\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/militarytimes\/news\/your-military\/2022\/02\/18\/us-allies-watch-for-russian-attempt-to-justify-ukraine-invasion\/\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__inner\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__media\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" src=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/URFF1.jpg.jpg?w=300\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__image wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" \/>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__content\">\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"smg-interstitial-link__kicker\">Related<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"smg-interstitial-link__title\">US consulting with NATO, allies, about future troop deployments to Europe<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"smg-interstitial-link__excerpt\">U.S. President Joe Biden sounded unusually dire Thursday, as he warned that Washington saw no signs of a promised Russian withdrawal.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/aside>\n\t\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But Moscow has demanded that the U.S. and its allies keep Ukraine and other ex-Soviet nations out of NATO, not deploy weapons in Ukraine and pull back NATO forces from Eastern Europe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Washington and its allies bluntly rejected the Russian demands, and Moscow threatened to take unspecified \u201cmilitary-technical measures\u201d if the West continued to stonewall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Russia holds massive drills of its strategic nuclear forces on an annual basis, but the maneuvers planned for Saturday pointedly involve the Black Sea Fleet. The fleet is based on the Crimean Peninsula, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Black Sea Fleet has surface warships and submarines equipped with Kalibr cruise missiles, but its doesn\u2019t have intercontinental ballistic missiles and didn\u2019t take part in similar previous drills of the country\u2019s strategic forces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"3766\" height=\"2514\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/URN6.jpg.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-29217\" srcset=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/URN6.jpg.jpg 3766w, https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/URN6.jpg.jpg?resize=300,200 300w, https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/URN6.jpg.jpg?resize=768,513 768w, https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/URN6.jpg.jpg?resize=1024,684 1024w, https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/URN6.jpg.jpg?resize=1536,1025 1536w, https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/URN6.jpg.jpg?resize=2048,1367 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 3766px) 100vw, 3766px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">FILE &#8211; In this photo released by Russian Defense Ministry Press Service, Russian nuclear submarines Prince Vladimir, above, and Yekaterinburg are harbored at a Russian naval base in Gazhiyevo, Kola Peninsula, Russia,  onApril 13, 2021. Russia is planning massive drills of its strategic military forces that provide a stark reminder of the country&#8217;s nuclear might. The Russian Defense Ministry announced the war games on Friday amid Western fears that Moscow might be preparing to invade Ukraine. (Vadim Savitsky\/Russian Defense Ministry Press Service via AP)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In the past, Russia has held the annual strategic forces drills in the fall. U.S. officials have voiced concern that Moscow shifted the exercise to February to coincide with a possible invasion of Ukraine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Kremlin\u2019s Peskov said Russia notified foreign partners about the maneuvers in advance, adding that the exercise shouldn\u2019t cause worries in the West.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cPractice launches of ballistic missiles are part of regular training,\u201d he said. \u201cThey are preceded by a series of notices to other nations via different channels.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Putin met with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko and invited him to watch Saturday\u2019s maneuvers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The authoritarian Lukashenko, who has edged closer to Moscow amid Western sanctions for his crackdown on domestic protests, has offered to host Russian nuclear weapons. in Belarus, which neighbors Ukraine to the north.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The strategic forces of both Russia and the United States include a nuclear triad of land-based intercontinental ballistic missiles, submarine-based ICBMs and nuclear-capable bombers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The exercise of Russia\u2019s nuclear forces follows a series of sweeping drills that the Russian military held near Ukraine and in Belarus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Russian military said it started pulling some of troops massed near Ukraine back to their permanent bases after the drills. The U.S. and its allies questioned the claim and said that Moscow has actually moved thousands of new troops closer to Ukraine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Moscow argued that the pullback takes time and rejected Western criticism, saying that it would deploy troops wherever it\u2019s necessary to ensure national security.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The war games follow U.S. President Joe Biden\u2019s warning on Thursday that Russia could invade Ukraine within days.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":90841,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":8,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[101,8,23,89,12,26],"tags":[],"coauthors":[1290],"class_list":["post-52037","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-news-roundup","category-flashpoints","category-home","category-middle-column","category-news","category-newsletters"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"TIKCIBHWAZCUFGJC7GGTWIKRR4","arc_canonical_url":"\/flashpoints\/ukraine\/2022\/02\/18\/russia-to-stage-massive-nuclear-drills-amid-ukraine-standoff\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented 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