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Russian leader Vladimir Putin on Saturday attended a strategic nuclear exercise, including the launch of hypersonic ballistic missiles and other weapons on Saturday, the latest show of force in a time of sharp tensions with the West over Ukraine.
Mr Putin attended the Kremlin drills alongside his close ally, Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko. The exercises included hitting targets on land and sea from warships, submarines, fighter jets and from the ground, the Kremlin said.
During the exercise, a ballistic missile was fired from northwestern Russia and a second from a submarine in the Barents Sea – hitting targets thousands of miles away on the eastern Kamchatka Peninsula, the Kremlin said. The Kremlin has said the exercises are part of a regular exercise process and denied that they signal an escalation of the crisis.
They follow a series of maneuvers by the Russian armed forces in the last four months that have included a gathering of 150,000 or more troops in northern, eastern and southern Ukraine, according to Western estimates./VOA
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