Russia holds strategic nuclear drills

Moscow: Russian President Vladimir Putin oversaw strategic nuclear drills a week before the US presidential election, boasting of improved capabilities that can penetrate air defences.

"I want to stress that we aren't planning to enter into a new arms race," Putin said in a televised address on Tuesday before the drills. Still, growing geopolitical tensions mean it's "important to have modern strategic forces that are constantly ready for combat use," he said.

Russia will upgrade its strategic arsenal with stationary and mobile systems that are more accurate and capable of overpowering missile defenses, according to Putin. The drills would practice the management and launch of ballistic and cruise missiles, he said.

Last month, the Russian leader said that his country will revise its nuclear doctrine to include a response to "aggression" by non-nuclear states that's supported by other nuclear powers. That announcement came after Putin warned the US and its NATO allies against allowing Ukraine to strike deep inside Russia using long-range high-precision weapons that they've supplied.

The US so far hasn't announced any decision to permit such attacks, despite pleas from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy that his military be allowed to target airfields and military installations. Ukraine wants to use British Storm Shadow cruise missiles to carry out the strikes, guided by US navigational data.

"Russia confirms its fundamental position that the use of nuclear weapons is an extreme, exceptional measure to ensure the security of the state," Putin said.

Russian armed forces fired intercontinental ballistic missiles from the Kamchatka Peninsula in the country's Far East during the drills, according to a statement from the Defense Ministry in Moscow. They also launched ballistic missiles from the Barents and Okhotsk Seas, as well as cruise missiles from the air.