Russian president Vladimir Putin oversees dramatic nuclear drill as he repeats Ukraine ‘dirty bomb’ claim

With repeated claims that Ukraine is preparing a ‘dirty bomb’, fears grow that Russian president Vladimir Putin is preparing a false flag event to justify a terrifying war escalation.

Russian President Vladimir Putin oversees the training of the strategic deterrence forces, troops responsible for responding to threats of nuclear war, via a video link in Moscow overnight (AEDT). Picture: Sputnik

Vladimir Putin oversaw a dramatic Russian military drill simulating a massive nuclear strike on Wednesday as he repeated claims that Ukraine was preparing a “dirty bomb”.

The Russian exercises, which had been pre-notified to the West, have suddenly raised the political temperature and come amid Putin’s warnings that he would use all means available to defend Russian territory.

Western countries have vigorously rejected the Kremlin’s insistence that Ukraine is preparing its own devastating radioactive strike on Russian soil, fearing that Putin is preparing a false flag event for the Russian domestic audience to justify and provoke a terrifying escalation of the war.

Russian President Vladimir Putin chairs a meeting with the heads of delegations of the Conference of Heads of Security and Intelligence Agencies. Picture: Sputnik

Wednesday’s missile exercises involved a Yars land-based intercontinental ballistic missile test-fired from Plesetsk in the north of Russia while a Russian nuclear submarine in the Barents Sea launched a Sineva ICBM at the Kura firing range on the far-eastern Kamchatka Peninsula.

Tu-95 strategic bombers also launched cruise missiles at practice targets.

The Kremlin said in a statement that all tasks set for the exercise were fulfilled and all the missiles had reached their designated targets.

Russian television showed Mr Putin watching the launching of the missiles while broadcasting parts of a speech he had given to regional intelligence services in which he accused Ukraine of planning a dirty bomb attack as well as being a testing ground of US military biological experiments.

Also on Russian television, Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said the drill was to practice carrying out “a massive nuclear strike by the strategic nuclear forces in retaliation for the enemy’s nuclear strike”.

The Kremlin also said that Putin had overseen training of Moscow’s strategic deterrence forces – the troops responsible for responding to threats of nuclear war.

The Russian president’s posturing come as Russia battles to hold the southern Ukraine city of Kherson.

Ukrainian military officials say that Russian forces have dug in for the heaviest of battles in that region, but that Mr Putin was increasingly becoming boxed in as to his military options to hold or extend any territorial gains in the war in Ukraine.