Russia stages nuclear drills as Trump-Putin summit is put on hold

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.”

The Associated Press receives support for nuclear security coverage from the Carnegie Corporation of New York and Outrider Foundation . The AP is solely responsible for all content.

莫斯科（美联社）——俄罗斯总统弗拉基米尔·普京周三指示该国战略核力量进行演习，其中包括导弹试射。与此同时，他与美国总统唐纳德·特朗普就乌克兰问题举行的峰会被推迟。

克里姆林宫表示，作为莫斯科核三位一体演习的一部分，一枚“亚尔斯”洲际弹道导弹从俄罗斯西北部的普列谢茨克发射场试射，一枚“西涅瓦”洲际弹道导弹由一艘潜艇在巴伦支海发射。演习还包括图-95战略轰炸机发射远程巡航导弹。

克里姆林宫在一份声明中表示，此次演习检验了军事指挥机构的技能。

军队总参谋长瓦列里·格拉西莫夫将军通过视频连线向普京报告说，这些演习的目的是“演练授权使用核武器的程序”。

普京独自一人坐在白色圆桌旁，面对着大屏幕，屏幕上显示着国防部长格拉西莫夫和安德烈·别洛乌索夫的画面。这三人将在冲突爆发时参与核武器的发射。

尽管普京强调这些行动是事先计划好的，但就在几个小时前，美国总统唐纳德·特朗普周二表示，他原计划在布达佩斯与普京迅速会面，但由于他不想“浪费时间”，所以搁置了这一计划。

特朗普上周宣布将在匈牙利布达佩斯举行会晤，而关于会晤的决定是在美国国务卿马可·卢比奥和俄罗斯外交部长谢尔盖·拉夫罗夫周一通话后做出的。

拉夫罗夫周二的表态明确表明，俄罗斯反对立即在乌克兰停火。与此同时，特朗普今年以来在冲突的关键问题上立场摇摆不定，包括是否应在长期和平谈判之前实现停火，以及乌克兰能否收复在近四年的冲突中被俄罗斯占领的领土。

克里姆林宫发言人德米特里·佩斯科夫周三强调，计划中的普京-特朗普峰会需要做好充分准备。

佩斯科夫告诉记者：“没有人想浪费时间：无论是特朗普总统还是普京总统。这两位总统都习惯于高效工作，但效率始终离不开充分的准备。”

美联社的核安全报道得到了纽约卡内基基金会和Outrider基金会的支持。美联社对所有内容负全部责任。