Russian president Vladimir Putin on Wednesday ordered drills of the country's strategic nuclear forces amid an ongoing war with Ukraine and flaring tensions with the West. The drills included practice firing of several key long-range missiles. The Russian government, also commonly referred to as the Kremlin, said in a statement that the exercises tested the skills of military command structures. The tests come at a time Putin's planned meeting with United States president Donald Trump to discuss peace in Ukraine has been indefinitely shelved.

Key long-range missiles test-fired

The Kremlin said that a Yars intercontinental ballistic missile was test-fired from a launch facility in northwestern Russia and a Sineva ICBM was launched from a submarine into the Barents Sea. As part of the exer

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