Russian nuclear submarines set sail for exercises in the Barents Sea and mobile missile launchers moved through snowy forests in Siberia on Tuesday after President Vladimir Putin ordered the country’s nuclear forces placed on high alert due to tensions with the West over the invasion of Ukraine.
Russia’s Northern Fleet said in a statement that several of its nuclear submarines were taking part in exercises designed to “train maneuvers in storm conditions.” He said that several ships protecting the Kola Peninsula, where there are several naval bases, would take part in the drills.
In the eastern Irkutsk region of Siberia, units of the Strategic Missile Forces dispersed ballistic missile launchers in forests to practice secret deployments, the Defense Ministry said in a statement.
The military did not say whether the drills were linked to Putin’s order on Sunday to place nuclear forces on alert amid the war in Ukraine. It was also unclear whether the exercises represented a change from the country’s normal nuclear training activities or are posturing.
Putin’s decree applies to all parts of the Russian nuclear triad, which like the United States consists of nuclear submarines armed with intercontinental ballistic missiles, land-based ballistic missiles with nuclear warheads, and nuclear-capable strategic bombers. The United States and Russia have the two largest nuclear arsenals in the world, by a wide margin.
The United States has said Putin’s move unnecessarily escalates an already dangerous conflict, but has so far not announced changes to its nuclear alert level, in part because of what the Russian order means in practical terms.
Russia and the United States have segments of their strategic nuclear forces in submarines and on the ground on alert and ready for combat at all times, but strategic bombers and other nuclear-capable aircraft are not. If one side were to raise the alert level of bombers or order more ballistic missile submarines into the high seas, that would cause alarm on the other side.
