Putin Directs Russian Nuke Force Drills10/23 06:23

   

   MOSCOW (AP) -- Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday directed drills 
of the country's strategic nuclear forces that featured practice missile 
launches, an exercise that came as his planned summit on Ukraine with U.S. 
President Donald Trump was put on hold.

   The Kremlin said that as part of the maneuvers involving all parts of 
Moscow's nuclear triad, a Yars intercontinental ballistic missile was 
test-fired from the Plesetsk launch facility in northwestern Russia, and a 
Sineva ICBM was launched by a submarine in the Barents Sea. The drills also 
involved Tu-95 strategic bombers firing long-range cruise missiles.

   The exercise tested the skills of military command structures, the Kremlin 
said in a statement.

   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 authorizing the use of nuclear weapons."

   Putin, sitting alone at a round white table, faced big screens showing 
Gerasimov and Defense Minister Andrei Belousov. All three men would be involved 
in launching nuclear weapons in case of conflict.

   While Putin emphasized that the maneuvers had been planned in advance, they 
came hours after President Donald 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 Monday between U.S. Secretary of 
State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

   Lavrov made clear in comments Tuesday that Russia is opposed to an immediate 
ceasefire in Ukraine. Trump, meanwhile, has been shifting his stance all year 
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.

   Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Wednesday emphasized that the planned 
Putin-Trump summit 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."