Putin deploys nuclear bombers in 'WW3 war games'
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Vladimir Putin has deployed his dreaded Tu-22M3 strategic nuclear bombers as part of massive new war games.
Russia and Belarus are holding a major joint military exercise on NATO’s doorstep at a time of heightened tension with the Western alliance.
The ‘Zapad’ – meaning ‘West’ – drills involve troops fighting off a mock attack against the two countries, whose alliance is known as the Union State, and then ‘crushing’ the enemy.
New footage shows the supersonic long-range strategic bomber carrying out a strike on a simulated enemy, ‘disrupting the control system and destroying critical objects’.
Elsewhere, Russian MiG-31 fighter jets equipped with hypersonic Kinzhal ballistic missiles completed a four-hour flight over the neutral waters of the Barents Sea, the Interfax news agency reports.
The Kinzhal, ‘dagger’ in Russian, is an air-launched hypersonic ballistic missile capable of carrying nuclear or conventional warheads.
The last round of drills took place in September 2021, five months before Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine (Picture: Russian Defence Ministry/AFP via Getty Images)
Russia has previously used the weapons against Ukraine.
Troops will also drill the use of nuclear missiles from the West’s doorstep in Belarus, amid preparations for deployment of ‘super-weapon’ Oreshnik there.
Belarus borders three NATO members – Poland, Lithuania and Latvia – to its west, and Ukraine to its south.
The drills also saw a dozen warships from Putin’s Baltic Sea Fleet engaged in drills with Su-30SM and Su-24M aircraft, and Mi-8 helicopters, against a mock enemy.
Russia deployed its Tu-22M3 strategic nuclear bombers (Picture: Russian MoD/e2w news)
A warship of Russian Navy’s Northern Fleet taking part in the Zapad-2025 joint military drills at an undisclosed location in Russia (Picture: EPA)
The exercises involved large landing ships, corvettes, small missile and anti-submarine vessels, minesweepers, missile boats, submarines, it was reported.
Russia has been running Zapad exercises roughly every four years since 1999.
The last round of drills took place in September 2021, five months before Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, which it launched in part from Belarusian territory.
The war games come after Russia flew attack drones into Polish air space which had to be shot down by alliance fighters.
A Russian Ka-52 attack helicopter taking part in the Zapad-2025 joint military drills at an undisclosed location in Belarus (Picture: EPA)
Soldiers riding on an armored vehicle during the drills (Picture: EPA)
Poland closed its border with Belarus as the UN security council was warned of the dire risk of a new world war, as the Alliance was forced to urgently strengthen its eastern defences.
Ukraine’s permanent representative to the UN Andriy Melnyk warned that if Putin’s escalation is not halted ‘tomorrow it could be drones or even missiles falling on Berlin, Paris, or London’.
‘And the day after, who knows, something might even “accidentally” cross the Atlantic,’ he added.
‘Russia is not mocking this council. It is spitting in your face.
A closed Polish-Belarusian border crossing Terespol-Brest (Picture: Wojciech Olkusnik/East News/Shutterstock)
‘We are staring into the abyss of a Third World War.’
Meanwhile, Putin highlighted his lack of interest in a settlement in the war with his spokesman signalling that peace negotiations with Ukraine were now on ‘pause’.
Neither Poland nor NATO has yet given a full account of what they suspect the drones were doing.
NATO also faces questions about whether foreign drones should even be able to enter its airspace and how well equipped it is to deal with such threats.
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