Putin fires missiles from the nuclear triad ZARS and Sineva

Putin, who directed the maneuvers as the Supreme Commander of the Russian Armed Forces, said in a video conference with the top military leadership that"today we are carrying out a planned - I want to emphasize, planned - nuclear command and control exercise," reports CNN.

Nuclear Triad Test

According to the AP agency, the exercises tested"all three components of the nuclear triad - land, sea and air":

The Ministry of Defense announced the launch of the Yars intercontinental ballistic missile from the Plesetsk cosmodrome in northwestern Russia and the Sineva ballistic missile from the Bryansk nuclear submarine in the Barents Sea.

Putin at the christening of the Perm nuclear submarine, it will be armed with Zircons

Tu-95MS strategic bombers also participated in the exercise, which, according to Moscow, fired long-range air-launched missiles.

The Kremlin said the exercises tested the"readiness of military command and control systems" and that "all objectives were met."

During a video call, Russian Army Chief of Staff Valery Gerasimov informed Putin that the goal was to"practice procedures for authorizing the use of nuclear weapons."

Putin, sitting alone at a round white table, communicated via video link with Gerasimov and Defense Minister Andrei Belousov. These three men would play a key role in deciding whether to deploy the nuclear arsenal in the event of an armed conflict.

The exercise took place after the cancellation of the summit with Trump

Putin stressed that the maneuvers were planned in advance, but took place just hours after US President Donald Trump announced that his planned summit with Putin in Budapest was being postponed because he did not want"it to be a waste of time."

The decision to cancel the meeting, which Trump announced last week, came after a phone call on Monday between US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

Lavrov said on Tuesday that Moscow opposes an immediate ceasefire in Ukraine. Trump, on the other hand, has changed his position several times over the year on key issues in the conflict, including whether a ceasefire should precede long-term peace talks and whether Ukraine can reclaim territory occupied by Russia during nearly four years of fighting.