Putin directs drills of Russian nuclear forces as summit with Trump put on hold

Russian President Vladimir Putin oversaw nuclear drills via videolink (Alexander Kazakov, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

Russian President Vladimir Putin 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 US President Donald Trump was put on hold.

The Kremlin said that as part of the manoeuvres 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.