Russia conducts test firing of ‘advanced’ intercontinental ballistic missile

What there is to know

A few weeks after announcing the suspension of its participation in the New Start nuclear disarmament treaty, Russia carried out, on Tuesday April 11, the test launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile “advance” Since Kapustin Yar basein the south of the country. “The missile’s training warhead hit a fictional target at the Sary Shagan training ground” in Kazakhstan, the Russian Defense Ministry said. Since the start of the war in Ukraine, Vladimir Putin has repeatedly hinted that the use of nuclear weapons was not excluded if Russia were to be threatened. Follow our live.

Washington tries to reassure its allies after the leak of documents. US foreign and defense chiefs spoke with their Ukrainian counterparts on Tuesday after classified US intelligence documents leaked. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin reaffirmed that the United States was taking this leak “very seriously”. For his part, the Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, refused to comment on the authenticity or the content of these documents.

Doubts about a Ukrainian counter-offensive. Several of the American intelligence documents, consulted by AFP, raise doubts about a potential Ukrainian counter-offensive which could only obtain “modest territorial gains” facing the Russian forces, These documents mention in particular a lack of equipment and precision ammunition on the Ukrainian side.

A Russian law to facilitate enlistment in the army. Russian MPs have passed a law allowing mobilization orders to be sent electronically, a measure that will make it harder to evade the army. Until then, mobilization orders had to be hand delivered to those mobilized, which allowed many Russians to ignore these summonses or to have time to move or even flee the country.

source site-25