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Vladimir Putin has staged drills with his road-launched Yars nuclear missiles in a forest in western Siberia.

Their 7,500-mile range means they are capable of striking the UK or anywhere in Europe.

The tests come amid high tension with the West over the war in Ukraine, and against the backdrop of near-daily threats by Putin’s propagandists to deploy atomic weapons.

In a statement, the Russian defence ministry said: ‘Over 100 pieces of hardware are taking part in the exercise. 

‘Launch vehicles of the Yars road-mobile missile systems of the Russian Strategic Missile Forces’ Novosibirsk Missile Formation have trained redeployment during a scheduled drill.

‘While performing their manoeuvres, missile units and detachments dispersed in a forest to increase concealment.’

They trained in killing mock saboteurs, reconnoitring the launch area, and in passing through ‘contaminated’ areas, said the defence ministry.

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Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has triggered the most serious crisis in relations between Russia and the West since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, when many people feared the world was on the brink of nuclear war.

Putin put his nuclear forces on alert earlier in the war with Ukraine and regular drills are held.

This week, one of his closest allies told the United States that attempts by the West to punish a nuclear power such as Russia for the war in Ukraine risked endangering humanity.

Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said attempts to use courts or tribunals to investigate the country’s actions in Ukraine would be futile and risk global devastation.

Medvedev, who now serves as deputy chairman of the Russian Security Council, said on Telegram: ‘The idea of punishing a country that has one of the largest nuclear potentials is absurd. And potentially poses a threat to the existence of humanity.’

While president from 2008 to 2012, Medvedev presented himself as a reformer who wanted better relations with the West.

But since President Vladimir Putin ordered the Feb. 24 invasion, he has recast himself as a vociferous Kremlin hardliner.

Medvedev wrote in a lengthy diatribe: ‘The entire US history since the times of subjugation of the native Indian population represents a series of bloody wars.

‘Was anyone held responsible for those crimes? What tribunal condemned the sea of blood spilled by the US there?’

He concluded: ‘It won’t work with Russia, they know it well. That’s why the rotten dogs of war are barking in such a disgusting way.’

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