Putin supervises nuclear forces drills as sanctions mount on Russia over its war against Ukraine

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday supervised drills of the country’s nuclear forces, an exercise that came as his planned summit on Ukraine with US President Donald Trump was put on hold and new sanctions were slammed against Moscow.

The exercise, which featured practice missile launches, tested the skills of military command structures, the Kremlin said in a statement.

The Kremlin stated that as part of the exercises involving all elements of Moscow’s nuclear triad, a Yars intercontinental ballistic missile was test-fired from the Plesetsk launch site in northwestern Russia, and a Sineva ICBM was launched by a submarine in the Barents Sea.

Putin: Nuclear drills had been planned

As part of its nuclear deterrent, Russia regularly conducts preparedness drills, but Wednesday's drills also involved Tu-95 strategic bombers firing long-range cruise missiles, according to the Kremlin.

The chief of the military’s General Staff, Gen. Valery Gerasimov, reported to Putin via video link that the drills were intended to “practice procedures for authorising the use of nuclear weapons.”

Sitting alone at a round white table, Putin faced big screens showing Gerasimov and Defence Minister Andrei Belousov, the men who would be involved in launching nuclear weapons in case of conflict.

While the Russian leader emphasised that the drills had been planned, they came hours after Trump said Tuesday his plan for a swift meeting with Putin in Budapest was on hold because he didn’t want it to be a “waste of time.”

The decision about the meeting in Budapest, Hungary, which Trump had announced last week, was made following a call on Monday between US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

Lavrov made clear in comments on Tuesday that Russia is opposed to an immediate ceasefire in Ukraine, while Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Wednesday said that the planned second Putin-Trump summit in months needs to be thoroughly prepared.

“No one wants to waste time: neither President Trump nor President Putin,” Peskov told reporters. These are the two presidents who are accustomed to working efficiently with high productivity. But effectiveness always requires preparation.”

US and EU slap new sanctions on Moscow

Meanwhile, as Washington urged Moscow to agree to an immediate ceasefire in its war against Ukraine, the Trump administration on Wednesday placed new sanctions on Russia's two biggest oil corporations.

For weeks, Trump had hinted that he could punish Russia for extending the conflict, but until Wednesday, he had not taken any significant action.

While claiming that he had "cancelled" the planned Budapest meeting with Putin, Trump said he “felt it was time” for the sanctions, noting he “waited a long time” to impose them.

In a statement released on Wednesday, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced that the moment had come for "an immediate ceasefire and to stop the killing."

Interestingly, the latest sanctions from the US on Moscow come amid Trump's shifting stance on key issues in the conflict, including whether a ceasefire should come before longer-term peace talks and whether Ukraine could win back land seized by Russia during almost four years of fighting.

The EU on Wednesday also slapped its first-ever ban on imports of Russian liquefied natural gas (LNG) as of 1 January 2027.