Moscow, Russia today test-launched several ballistic missiles during planned exercises overseen by President Vladimir Putin, media reports said, as a crisis raged in neighbouring Ukraine.
The
Russian military fired a Topol intercontinental ballistic missile from its
northern test site in Plesetsk, as well as "several" shorter-range
missiles from its submarines in the Northern and Pacific Fleets, news agencies
cited defence officials as saying. Other
military manoeuvres involved the launch from an undisclosed location in western
Russia of air-to-surface rockets by Tu-95 strategic bombers, and the entry into
the English Channel of a Northern Fleet armada led by the aircraft carrier
Admiral Kuznetsov. The
exercises, overseen by Putin and four visiting presidents from Kremlin-allied
ex-Soviet states, were staged ahead of Russia's commemoration tomorrow of the
defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II. Putin
stressed in televised comments that the war games had been planned in November,
implying that they were not directly linked to events in Ukraine. But he
told the visiting presidents from Belarus, Armenia, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan
that Russia's nuclear defence capabilities remained strong and on constant
alert."You have been able to witness the great readiness and
cohesion of our country's offencive and defencive strategic forces," said
Putin.
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