Putin oversees nuclear drills amid tensions

Missiles reached their targets in the training exercise, statement from the Kremlin says

Russian President Vladimir Putin oversaw training exercises of Russia's strategic nuclear deterrence forces on Wednesday, as NATO is carrying out its nuclear exercises in northwestern Europe.

State television aired footage of Putin overseeing the drills in the Barents Sea in the Arctic and the Kamchatka peninsula in the Far East from a control room.

"The tasks envisaged during the training of the strategic deterrence forces were completed in full. All missiles reached their targets," a Kremlin statement said.

The Zvezda military news channel showed Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu telling Putin that the exercises were practicing "delivering a massive nuclear strike by strategic offensive forces in response to an enemy nuclear strike".

"Under the leadership of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces Vladimir Putin, a training session was held with ground, sea and air strategic deterrence forces, during which practical launches of ballistic and cruise missiles took place," the Kremlin said in a statement.

Chief of Staff Valery Gerasimov told Putin the exercise involved Yars intercontinental ballistic missiles and submarines and Tupolev strategic bomber planes.

The drills, which take place annually, are the second such exercise this year, with the previous drills taking place five days before Russia's special military operation in Ukraine on Feb 24. The United States said Moscow had informed it of the routine drills in advance.

In remarks carried by Russian TV, Putin said Ukraine plans to "use a so-called dirty bomb as a provocation" and contended the US was using Ukraine as a "battering ram "against Russia, turning the country into a "testing ground" for military biological experiments.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov insisted that Moscow had information about an ongoing preparation in Ukraine for "such a terror attack".

Ukraine dismissed Moscow's claim. Energoatom, the Ukrainian state enterprise that operates the country's four nuclear power plants, said Russian forces have carried out secret construction work over the last week at the occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine.

'Open' to talks

Putin also is still sending signals that he is open to negotiations with Kyiv. The latest message came via Umaro Mokhtar Sissoco Embalo, president of Guinea-Bissau, who visited Kyiv to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

"I was in Russia with President Putin, who asked me to forward you what we spoke about, something he thinks would be very important. He wishes and thinks that a direct dialogue should happen between your two countries," Embalo said.

At a news conference, Zelensky responded that a prerequisite for talks would be Russia's recognition of Ukraine's territory, borders and sovereignty.

The two sides have managed limited cooperation on certain issues such as the exchange of prisoners of war and repatriation of remains.

On Wednesday, Andriy Yermak, head of Ukraine's presidential office, said on Telegram that Russian forces had handed over 10 Ukrainian servicemen held as prisoners of war. They also turned over the body of a volunteer, US Army veteran Joshua Alan Jones, who Yermak said fought for Ukraine and died in combat.

Authorities in Crimea said on Thursday that a thermal power plant on the peninsula was targeted by an overnight drone attack, but claimed it was not badly damaged.

"Today at night, there was a UAV(unmanned aerial vehicle) attack on the Balaklava thermal power station," Sevastopol Governor Mikhail Razvozhayev said on Telegram.

The official said there was "no threat to power supply" and that "the incident does not affect the power supply of Sevastopol and the peninsula".

He said the transformer that caught fire during the supposed attack "was under maintenance and did not work". "Workers at the plant quickly dealt with the fire," he added.

Agencies contributed to this story.

renqi@chinadaily.com.cn