Russia delivers nuclear munitions in Belarus as part of nuclear drills

MOSCOW: Russia delivered nuclear munitions ‌to field storage facilities in Belarus as part of major nuclear drills, the Russian Defence Ministry said on Thursday.

The three-day nuclear exercise, which started on Tuesday and is taking place ​across Russia and Belarus, comes at a time when Moscow is ​locked in what it says is an existential struggle with the ⁠West over Ukraine.

“As part of the nuclear forces exercise, nuclear munitions were delivered ​to the field storage facilities of the missile brigade’s position area in the ​Republic of Belarus,” the ministry said.

Russia said the missile unit in Belarus was carrying out training to receive special munitions for the mobile Iskander-M tactical missile system, including loading munitions onto ​launch vehicles and secretly moving to a designated area for launch preparation.

Footage released ​by the Defence Ministry showed a truck driving through a forest amid lightning and unloading ‌an ⁠item. It was not immediately clear what they were unloading.

The Iskander-M, a mobile guided missile system code-named “SS-26 Stone” by NATO, replaced the Soviet “Scud”. Its guided missiles have a range of up to 500 km (300 miles) and can carry conventional or ​nuclear warheads.

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Throughout the war ​in Ukraine, President ⁠Vladimir Putin has issued reminders of Russia’s nuclear might as a warning to the West not to go too far ​in its support of Kyiv.

The Kremlin slammed remarks by Lithuania’s ​top diplomat ⁠as “verging on insanity” on Wednesday after Foreign Minister Kestutis Budrys said NATO had to show Moscow it was capable of penetrating the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad.

Kaliningrad is ⁠sandwiched between ​NATO members Lithuania and Poland on the ​Baltic coast. It has a population of around 1 million and is heavily militarised, serving as the ​headquarters of Russia’s Baltic Fleet.