(Moscow) Russian President Vladimir Putin made a thirty-minute flight on Thursday aboard a Tu-160m supersonic strategic bomber from Russia’s nuclear deterrent forces, in the midst of the conflict in Ukraine.
According to Russian news agencies, it took off from the runway of an aircraft factory in Kazan, the capital of the Russian republic of Tatarstan.
The flight, according to these sources, was carried out aboard a Tu-160m, a modernized version of this aircraft designed by the Soviet Union during the Cold War.
“We are receiving new equipment, excellent and indeed new generation equipment,” welcomed the head of the Kremlin, quoted by the Ria-Novosti agency, while he turned a large part of the Russian economy towards the war effort.
The Tu-160m is an imposing heavy bomber capable of carrying out nuclear and conventional strikes over long distances.
Since the start of the large-scale offensive in Ukraine in February 2022, the Russian president has blown hot and cold regarding the use of nuclear weapons, deploying tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus, close in the summer of 2023. ally of Moscow.
At the beginning of November, Moscow revoked its ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), against a backdrop of conflict in Ukraine and crisis with the West.
At the end of October, Russia also carried out test firings of ballistic missiles with a view to preparing its forces for a “massive nuclear strike” in response.
Russian nuclear doctrine provides for a “strictly defensive” use of atomic weapons, in the event of an attack on Russia with weapons of mass destruction or in the event of aggression with conventional weapons “threatening the very existence of State “.