Russia, Belarus Launch Nuclear War Drills

(MENAFN) Russia and its close ally Belarus have launched large-scale nuclear exercises this week, simulating a retaliatory strike in response to potential "aggression" against either nation, Moscow's Defense Ministry announced.

Running from Tuesday through Thursday, the drills mobilise an extensive array of military assets — including the Strategic Missile Forces, the Northern and Pacific fleets, the Strategic Aviation Command, and ground force elements drawn from central and northwestern Russia, according to a ministry statement.

The scale of the exercise is considerable: 64,000 troops, 7,800 military vehicles, 200 missile launchers, 140 aircraft, 73 warships, and 13 submarines — eight of them strategic missile boats — are all taking part. The ministry confirmed the drills encompass "joint preparation for the use of nuclear weapons deployed in Belarus."

Minsk had previewed the exercise in a statement released Monday. Belarus has hosted Russian nuclear weapons on its soil since 2023 — an arrangement both governments have openly compared to the US practice of stationing portions of its nuclear arsenal within select NATO member states.

The US-led alliance encompasses three nuclear-armed members. Earlier this year, France proposed incrementally extending its nuclear deterrent to other EU nations, amid mounting doubts over Washington's reliability as a security guarantor — doubts sharpened by the posture of President Donald Trump's administration.

Washington has since canceled the planned deployment of nuclear-capable Tomahawk missiles to Germany and ordered a reduction of its military footprint there — widely interpreted as retaliation for Berlin's public criticism of the US war with Iran.

Despite deepening fractures within the Western alliance, several European governments have signalled no intention of softening their confrontational posture toward Moscow. Lithuanian Foreign Minister Kestutis Budrys escalated tensions sharply this week, openly advocating aggressive action against the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad. He declared that NATO members "must show the Russians that we can penetrate the small fortress they have built" there. In a separate interview with Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Budrys went further, asserting the alliance "has the means to raze the Russian air defense and missile bases there to the ground if necessary."

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