22 May 2026

By Jacob Paul

Vladimir Putin has warned he would use nuclear weapons as a “last resort” after holding huge joint military drills with Belarus – as Ukraine claims to have killed large swathes of Russians in a lethal string of airstrikes.

The Russian president said on Thursday his weapons of mass destruction act as a guarantor of “sovereignty” as his army completed its largest nuclear exercise in years.

64,000 troops took part in the three-day drills with Russian ally Belarus across land, air, and sea. Submarines and hypersonic missiles were also involved.

The drills saw Russia launch nuclear-capable missiles and issue nuclear munitions to some, amid heightened tensions with NATO over the Ukraine war.

“Given the growing tensions in the world and the emergence of new threats and risks, our nuclear triad must continue to serve as a reliable guarantor of the sovereignty of the Union State of Russia and Belarus,” Putin said in the Kremlin.

While Russia does not want to get involved in an arms race, he added, it will develop its nuclear forces and keep them on a sufficient level, including with new missiles and submarines.

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Russia has the world’s biggest nuclear arsenal with about 4,400 deployed and stockpiled nuclear warheads, while the U.S. has about 3,700, according to the Federation of American Scientists.

The drills come as Moscow says it is locked in an existential struggle with the West over Ukraine. 

Europe has hit out at the nuclear threat as a provocation, with NATO warning any attack on the military alliance would result in a “devastating” response.

Throughout the war, Putin has issued reminders of Russia’s nuclear might as a warning to the West not to go too far in its support of Kyiv. Ukraine and some Western leaders have dismissed such moves as irresponsible sabre-rattling.

It comes as Ukraine claims to have killed large swathes of Russian soldiers in strikes against targets in the occupied eastern region of the country.

Kyiv has been ramping up mid-range drone attacks on Moscow’s military infrastructure in the region as the pressure piles on Putin’s troops beleaguered troops One wave of strikes hit a Russian drone pilot training camp in the occupied town of Snizhne, taking out at least 65 cadets and an instructor on Wednesday night, the commander of Ukraine’s Unmanned Systems Forces said.

Another wave hit a Russian security service headquarters and an air defense system in the Kherson region, killing and injuring nearly 100 Russian soldiers, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Thursday.

He did not specify when the strike took place.

In his nightly video address, Zelenskyy also  said Russia was “eager to draw Belarus deeper into this war” and pledged that Ukraine had “the capability to strengthen our defences…and towork preventively.”

Meanwhile, three people were killed when a locomotive was struck by a Ukrainian drone in Russia’s Bryansk region on Thursday, state company Russian Railways said.

All three victims were Russian Railways employees and were hit at a railway station in the town of Unecha.

Bryansk region’s acting governor, Yegor Kovalchuk, had earlier said Unecha had come under attack.

The Bryansk region borders Ukraine and is frequently targeted in Ukrainian strikes.

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