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Russian nuclear submarines sailed off for drills in the Barents Sea and mobile missile launchers roamed the forests of Siberia after President Vladimir Putin put his nation’s nuclear forces on high alert over tension with the West over the invasion of Ukraine.
Russia’s Northern Fleet said in a statement that several of its nuclear submarines were involved in exercises designed to “train manoeuvring in stormy conditions”.
It said several warships that had the task of protecting north-west Russia’s Kola Peninsula, where several naval bases are located, would join the manoeuvres.
In the Irkutsk region of eastern Siberia, units of the Strategic Missile Forces dispersed Yars InterContinental ballistic missile launchers in forests to practice secret deployment, the defence ministry said in a statement.
The military did not say whether the drills were linked to Mr Putin’s order on Sunday that put the country’s nuclear forces on high alert amid the Ukraine crisis.
It also was unknown whether the exercises represented a change in the country’s normal nuclear training activities or posture.
Mr Putin’s decree applied to all parts of the Russian nuclear triad, which, like that of the US, consists of nuclear submarines armed with InterContinental ballistic missiles, nuclear-tipped land-based ICBMs and nuclear-capable strategic bombers.
The US and Russia have the two largest nuclear arsenals in the world, by far.
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A monitor displays a projectile striking the regional state administration building in Kharkiv, as the Russian invasion continues. Reuters -
People help a wounded woman in the aftermath of Russian shelling in Kharkiv. EPA -
Ukrainian emergency service personnel carry the body of a victim following shelling in Kharkiv. AP -
Students who fled the conflict rest in a refugee camp in Voluntari, Romania. AP -
Members of an Ukrainian civil defence unit pass new assault rifles to the opposite side of a blown-up bridge on Kiev’s northern front. AFP -
Civilians cross a river on Kiev's northern front. AFP -
A woman takes photos of a destroyed accommodation building near a checkpoint in Brovary, outside Kiev. AP -
The city hall of Kharkiv, damaged by Russian shelling. AFP -
Debris litters the square outside the damaged Kharkiv city hall. AFP -
A Ukrainian woman sleeps on the floor of the railway station in Zahonyi close to the Hungary/Ukraine border. AFP -
A medical worker attends to wounded man at a hospital in Brovary, outside Kiev. AP -
Refugees from Ukraine in a tent at the Medyka border crossing, Poland. AP -
Debris outside the regional administration building, which city officials said was hit by a missile, in Kharkiv. Reuters -
A student evacuated from Ukraine is embraced by her family after arriving at Tunis-Carthage International Airport in Tunisia. AFP -
Rescuers in a building damaged by a missile in central Kharkiv. Reuters -
An ambulance is visible through the damaged window of a vehicle hit by bullets in Kiev, Ukraine. Reuters -
Territorial defence members prepare to head out on patrol in Kiev. EPA -
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres delivers a speech on screen during the opening of the 49th session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, Switzerland. AP -
A policeman detains a young demonstrator during a protest against Russia's attack on Ukraine in St Petersburg, Russia. AP -
Local residents in Zhytomyr, Ukraine, prepare Molotov cocktails. Reuters -
Residents clean a bomb shelter under an out-of-service cinema in central Zhytomyr. Reuters -
Ukrainian volunteers tear cloth into strips to make camouflage nets in Lviv, western Ukraine. AP -
Part of the military convoy north-west of Invankiv, Ukraine. AP -
Mark Goncharuk, a young boy from Kiev, leaves his father behind as he travels with the rest of his family towards the border. Reuters -
People hold an anti-war protest outside the Russian Embassy in Mexico City, Mexico. Reuters -
A crater caused by shelling on the outskirts of Kiev. AFP -
People queue outside a grocery store in the Ukrainian capital. EPA -
Ukrainian soldiers stand at Maidan Nezalezhnosti, or Independence Square, in Kiev. EPA -
Vladimir Medinsky, the head of the Russian delegation, second left, and Davyd Arakhamia, faction leader of the Servant of the People party in the Ukrainian Parliament, third right, attend the peace talks in the Gomel region of Belarus. AP -
People who have fled the Russian invasion in Ukraine, clamour to board a bus bound for a refugee centre established in Przemysl, Poland. Reuters -
Hanna Pavlovna Lukasz, from Mirhord, Ukraine, said her sons, aged 12 and 8, and her 66-year-old mother had been waiting on the Ukrainian side of the border crossing with Medyka, Poland, for four days. AP -
A volunteer from Kiev prepares a rear post with trenches in the city. AFP -
A child being treated for cancer rests in the bomb shelter of the oncology ward at a hospital in Kiev. Getty -
Police officers check occupants of a suspicious car in Kiev, as Russia's invasion of Ukraine continues. Reuters -
A woman from Ukraine uses a phone to listen to a speech by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at a refugee shelter in Beregsurany, Hungary. Reuters -
Shelves empty of bread after a curfew was lifted as Russia's invasion of Ukraine continues, in Kiev. Reuters -
Ukrainian Defence Minister Oleksii Reznikov, left, and President Zelenskyy. AFP -
Snow-covered shoes donated for those fleeing the Russian invasion of Ukraine at the border crossing in Medyka, Poland. Reuters -
People who have fled Ukraine wait for a bus to transport them away from the border crossing in Medyka. Reuters -
Norwegian soldiers of the Nato-enhanced forward presence battalion pose at a military plane as they arrive at an airport in Kaunas, Lithuania. AP -
A person fleeing Ukraine sits during snowfall at a temporary camp in Przemysl, Poland. Reuters -
Footage reportedly of Russian Buk missile system vehicles on a road before a drone strike near Malyn, Ukraine. Reuters -
An explosion after what are said to be Russian Buk missile system vehicles on a road are struck by a drone. Reuters -
The monument to Russian troops from the Second World War, after the figures’ hands were painted red, at the Red Army memorial in Sofia, Bulgaria. EPA -
The Peace Tower on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Canada, is lit up with the colours of Ukraine’s national flag in a show of support. AP -
Russian President Vladimir Putin visits the construction site of the National Space Agency on the premises of the Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Centre, in Moscow. EPA -
A man looks out from a train, at the railway station in Lviv, Ukraine. The UN has estimated the conflict could produce as many as four million refugees. AP -
A Ukrainian boy waits for his mother after passing the border crossing point in Siret, northern Romania. EPA -
Russian policemen detain a demonstrator in St Petersburg, during a protest against the country's military actions in Ukraine. EPA -
Ukrainian soldiers at a check point in the city of Zhytomyr. Reuters -
Residents prepare petrol bombs to defend the city, in Uzhhorod, Ukraine. Reuters -
A pro-Russian fighter sits inside a tank in the separatist self-proclaimed Luhansk People's Republic, in the Luhansk region, Ukraine. Reuters -
Russian President Vladimir Putin, right, speaks to Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu, second left, and Head of the General Staff of the Armed Forces and First Deputy Defence Minister Valery Gerasimov, left, during their meeting in Moscow. AP -
Ukrainians and supporters gather during a demonstration in front of the Greek Parliament in Athens against the Russian military's operation in Ukraine. AFP -
Ukrainian Territorial Defence fighters test an automatic grenade launcher taken from a destroyed Russian infantry mobility vehicla after a battle in Kharkiv. AFP
The US said Mr Putin’s move unnecessarily escalated an already dangerous conflict, but so far has announced no changes in its nuclear weapons alert level, perhaps in part because it was unclear what the Russian president’s order meant in practical terms.
Russia and the US have the land and submarine-based segments of their strategic nuclear forces on alert and prepared for combat at all times, but nuclear-capable bombers and other aircraft are not on constant alert.
One party raising the nuclear-combat readiness of bombers or ordering more ICBM-carrying submarines to sea would ring alarm bells for another.
Compared to the US, Russia relies more heavily on nuclear-tipped InterContinental ballistic missiles, which are located in silos or mounted on mobile launchers.
A change in their readiness status could be more difficult to spot and assess.
Mr Putin’s order heightened already soaring tension, drawing comparisons to the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis during which Moscow and Washington teetered on the brink of a nuclear conflict.
In announcing his decision, Mr Putin cited “aggressive statements” from Nato powers and new, crippling Western sanctions that have frozen Russia’s hard currency reserves — an unprecedented move that threatened devastating consequences for the country's economy.
The latest statements from Mr Putin and other Russian officials indicated the Kremlin viewed the western sanctions as a threat on par with military aggression.
Dmitry Medvedev, deputy head of Russia’s Security Council, responded on Tuesday to French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire vowing that the EU would unleash an all-out economic and financial “war” against Russia.
“Today, some French minister has said that they declared an economic war on Russia,” Mr Medvedev, who served as Russia’s placeholder president in 2008-2012 when Mr Putin shifted into the role of prime minister due to term limits.
“Watch your tongue, sir!
“And don’t forget that in human history, economic wars quite often turned into real ones.”
