Russia held planned strategic nuclear drills on Wednesday, a week after NATO began similar annual exercises, as tensions in Europe over the Ukraine war run high.

"Today we are conducting planned, I would like to emphasise, planned, nuclear forces training," Russian President Vladimir Putin told generals in a televised meeting.

NATO began similar annual nuclear exercises focused on the North Sea region last Monday.

The Russian manoeuvres come with efforts faltering to solve the Ukraine war, and after US President Donald Trump on Tuesday shelved planned peace talks with Putin.

Russia's drill involved a mock intercontinental ballistic missile launch from a submarine in the Barents Sea, next to the Western bloc's borders.

Another mock rocket was launched from a cosmodrome in northern Russ

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