Russia began training exercises of its nuclear forces this Tuesday. In these maneuvers, in which Belarus also participates, the Russian army will mobilize thousands of men and simulate a threat of aggression against the country to check the readiness level of its strategic forces, announced the Ministry of Defense hours before the arrival of President Vladimir Putin in China.
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The training maneuvers will take place over three days, from May 19 to 21, and will involve “the strategic missile forces, the Northern and Pacific fleets, the long-range aviation command, part of the forces from the Leningrad and Central military districts,” the ministry explained in its statement.
During the more than four years of war with Ukraine, Moscow has verbally brandished its nuclear potential on several occasions. Sometimes very explicitly, as in the loud threats from Dmitry Medvedev, president of the country between 2008 and 2012 and now deputy head of the Russian Security Council. Sometimes it has been Putin himself, but in a much more veiled and calm manner.
The start of these exercises comes days after Russia suffered one of the most massive Ukrainian air attacks since the beginning of its military intervention in Ukraine in February 2022. On the night from Saturday to Sunday, Russian air defenses had to shoot down more than 500 enemy drones. More than 80 targeted Moscow, in the largest attack on the capital in over a year. As a result, there were four deaths, three in the Moscow region and one in Belgorod.
Moscow mobilizes 64,000 men in these maneuvers and plans missile launches in its military ranges
The nuclear exercises also coincide with the state visit of Russian President Vladimir Putin to Beijing, where he meets today and tomorrow with Chinese leader Xi Jinping in a meeting where the governments of both countries will strengthen what they have called for years “a friendship without limits.” The Kremlin chief has said in the past that the development of nuclear forces is an “absolute priority” for Russia.
In total, Russia will mobilize 64,000 personnel for these maneuvers, who will use more than 7,800 weapons and military equipment, including more than 200 missile launchers, over 140 aircraft, 73 ships, and 13 submarines, eight of which have the capacity to carry nuclear missiles. Additionally, ballistic and cruise missile launches are planned in military ranges on Russian territory.
With this deployment, Moscow also aims to check the joint readiness level in the use of nuclear weapons deployed on the territory of its ally Belarus.
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The Belarusian army began maneuvers of its units one day earlier, on Monday, May 18. The Belarusian Ministry of Defense reported that its missile forces and aviation are participating.
The Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs denounced these maneuvers on Monday and stated that the Kremlin “de facto legitimizes the proliferation of nuclear weapons worldwide” by turning Belarus into what it called a “nuclear operations base near NATO borders.”
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And last week, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that Russia is trying to involve Belarus in the war with Ukraine, and that Moscow is considering plans to launch operations from Belarus against Ukrainian territory or against one of the NATO countries. “We have knowledge of additional contacts between the Russians and Alexander Lukashenko, with the purpose of convincing him to join new Russian aggressive operations,” Zelensky said on Friday. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov responded by accusing Zelensky of trying “to incite violence, continue the war, and increase tensions.”
In a statement released on social media, the Minsk government assured this Tuesday that these exercises are a previously planned event and that “they are not directed against third countries nor do they constitute a threat to regional security.”
Russia installed tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus in 2023. Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said his country had received “more than a dozen” warheads. According to him, this decision was a response to the accelerated militarization of Eastern Europe and the increase in military activity by the United States and NATO.
Last year, Russia deployed the Oreshnik, its most modern nuclear-capable hypersonic missile, in Belarus. Putin anticipated this possibility a year earlier, when a security agreement between Moscow and Minsk was signed at the end of 2024. The Russian president said that Russia was willing to defend Belarus “with all the forces at its disposal.”
Belarus, which like Russia was part of the Soviet Union until its dissolution in 1991, borders three NATO and European Union member countries (Poland and the also former Soviet republics of Lithuania and Latvia), as well as Ukraine.
Russia and Belarus already carried out military maneuvers including their nuclear arsenal last year, during the Zapad-2025 exercises.
Last February, the Start III treaty (also called New Start), which was the last pact limiting the nuclear arsenals of Russia and the United States, expired. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov then assured that his country will continue to observe the limits imposed by that agreement on its nuclear arsenal, as long as the U.S. does the same.
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