The Russian military on Friday announced to stage massive drills of its nuclear forces on Feb. 19, amid rising fears that Russia might be planning to invade Ukraine.
President Vladimir Putin will personally oversee Saturday’s exercise, which will involve multiple practice launches of intercontinental ballistic missiles and cruise missiles, said the Russian Defense Ministry.
“On February 19, a planned drill of the forces of the strategic containment will be held under the leadership of the Supreme Commander of the Russian Federation’s Armed Forces, Vladimir Putin, during which, ballistic and cruise missiles will be launched,” a ministry statement on Feb. 18 said.
The statement further added that it planned the drills some time ago to check the readiness of Russia’s military command and personnel, as well as the reliability of its nuclear and conventional weapons.
The drill announcement follows U.S. President Joe Biden’s warning issued on Thursday that Moscow could invade Ukraine within days.
“Every indication we have is they’re prepared to go into Ukraine, attack Ukraine,” Biden said while talking to the reporters at the White House. He said the U.S. has “reason to believe” that Russia is “engaged in a false flag operation to have an excuse to go in,” but he did not provide details.
White House issued the warning after around 150,000 Russian troops, including almost 60% of Russia’s total ground forces, were deployed near Ukrainian borders. However, Moscow claims to have no plans of invading the neighboring country.
Details of upcoming Russian Drills:
An international news agency reported that according to the defense ministry of Russia, the drills will present forces and hardware of the following:
- The Aerospace Forces
- The Southern Military District
- The Strategic Missile Forces
- The Northern Fleet
- The Black Sea Fleet (based on the Crimean Peninsula, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014)
Moscow holds massive drills of its strategic nuclear forces on an annual basis to check the preparedness of its command and crew.
“A scheduled exercise of the strategic deterrence forces aims at checking the preparedness of military commands and crews of missile systems, warships and strategic bombers to accomplish their missions and at verifying the reliability of weapons of strategic nuclear and conventional forces.” said the Ministry.