Putin and Lukashenko monitor joint Russia-Belarus nuclear exercises

Moscow and Minsk hold strategic nuclear drills with the two countries’ leaders participating via video conference.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko have taken part via video conference in a joint nuclear forces exercise.

While senior military officials, including defence ministers from both countries, have conducted similar exercises on a quarterly basis, Thursday was the first time the two presidents had directly participated in such a training event, Russia’s TASS news agency reported.

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Opening the meeting held via videolink and broadcast live on the Kremlin’s website, Putin stressed that the use of nuclear weapons remains “an extreme and exceptional measure for ensuring the national security” of the two countries.

“Today, as part of the exercises, we are conducting the first joint training of the armies of Russia and Belarus on managing strategic and tactical nuclear forces,” he said.

At the same time, the Russian leader said the Russian-Belarusian nuclear triad – which are nuclear weapons capable of being deployed by land, sea and air – must continue to serve as “a reliable guarantor of the sovereignty of the Union State of Russia and Belarus” amid rising global tensions and emerging threats.

According to Putin, the drills are aimed at practising coordination and interaction between military officials in the event of nuclear weapons use, including weapons deployed on the territory of Belarus.

Lukashenko said the joint drills are part of regular military coordination between the two countries.

“We absolutely threaten no one. But we have such weapons, and we are ready in every possible way to defend our common fatherland from Brest to Vladivostok,” he said.

The Belarusian leader stressed that the exercises were defensive in nature and represented “the only demonstration from our side”, adding that countries possessing such capabilities “must know how to use them”.

Drone attacks

Russia’s Ministry of Defence said in a statement that its forces launched ‌a Yars ballistic missile and a Zircon hypersonic ⁠missile as part ⁠of missile ⁠tests during the nuclear ⁠drills.

According to the ministry, the crew of a nuclear-powered submarine launched a Sineva intercontinental ballistic missile from a submerged position as part of the drills. The Russian military also conducted a launch of a Yars intercontinental ballistic missile from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome towards a testing range in Russia’s Kamchatka region.

In Belarus, a combat crew of the Belarusian armed forces carried out a practical launch of a ballistic missile from an Iskander-M missile system at the Kapustin Yar testing range, the ministry said. The exercises also involved Tu-95MS strategic bombers, which launched hypersonic air-launched cruise missiles, while a MiG-31 aircraft carried out a launch of a Kinzhal hypersonic missile, according to the statement.

The joint drills held from Tuesday to Thursday were met with concern from Ukraine and its NATO allies. Kyiv has repeatedly accused Moscow of planning to launch a new attack from Belarus, either on its territory or one of its NATO allies, such as neighbouring Baltic states.

Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) said on Thursday that its units and the army were “carrying out a comprehensive set of enhanced security measures in the northern regions of our country” bordering Belarus.

The measures – including stepped up checks of individuals and properties – “will serve as an effective deterrent to any aggressive actions or operations by the enemy and its ally”, the SBU said in a statement.

Separately on Thursday, a Ukrainian drone attack on a town in Russia’s Bryansk border region killed three rail workers when it hit a locomotive at a station, Russia’s state RZhD rail network said.

Russian border towns and villages regularly come under Ukrainian fire as Moscow’s offensive against Ukraine has dragged on into a fifth year.

“[On Thursday,] a shunting locomotive came under drone attack at the Unecha station in the Bryansk region,” the network said in a statement on social media. It said the dead were a driver, an assistant driver and his repairman son.

Earlier this week. Ukraine launched what Russian officials described as one of the largest drone barrages of the war towards Moscow, killing at least five people.

NATO foreign ministers were scheduled to meet in Helsingborg, Sweden, on Thursday and Friday to discuss how to ensure that support for Ukraine remains substantial and sustainable for the long term.