A major strategic nuclear exercise was held today in Russia, attended remotely by President Vladimir Putin.

Although officially described by Moscow as a scheduled event, the exercise comes at a highly sensitive moment — with the war in Ukraine entering a critical phase and peace negotiations largely stalled — and thus carries a clear message to the West.

The drill coincided with NATO’s annual nuclear exercise, STEADFAST NOON, which also aims to maintain the Alliance’s nuclear readiness.

In Russian military doctrine, nuclear forces play a key role as an instrument of coercion and psychological pressure, and as a potential means to terminate a conventional conflict on terms acceptable to Moscow.

The exercise featured the simultaneous launch (pictured) of an SS-27 Mod.2 (RS-24 YARS) intercontinental ballistic missile from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome, and an SS-N-23A SKIFF (SINEVA) ICBM launched from a Delta IV-class SSBN in the Barents Sea. Tu-95MS strategic bombers also took part in the maneuvers.

The SS-27 Mod.2 YARS is a three-stage, solid-fuel ICBM with an estimated range exceeding 10,000 km, capable of carrying three to ten re-entry vehicles/warheads, depending on the source, and equipped with advanced decoys and countermeasures to penetrate enemy defenses. The SINEVA, on the other hand, is a three-stage, liquid-fuel SLBM (Submarine-Launched Ballistic Missile), fitted with four re-entry warheads and credited with a range of over 8,000 km.

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