Russian nuke bombers engage in war games drill ahead of NATO summit

Vladimir Putin sent up two supersonic White Swan Tu-160 nuclear bomber planes as part of a 12-hour war game mission, it was disclosed today, ahead of a NATO summit in neighbouring Lithuania. 

The two Tu-160s on the long-range mission flew more than 5,600 miles before landing at an Arctic base in the easternmost town in Europe after the marathon flight which involved two refuelling sessions by Il-78 aircraft.

The exact routing of the wargaming flights was not disclosed but the planes are regularly deployed in the Norwegian Sea north of Britain, and the Barents Sea.

Russian officials added that long-range strategic strike aircraft from Engels air base in Saratov region – in European Russia – and Amur, in the Far East – were also involved in the drills.

The war games, which come as a clear warning to NATO amid regular rhetoric from the Putin regime about using nuclear missiles – involved more than ten strike Tu-160 and Tu-95MS planes and support aircraft in total. 

NATO’s summit next week in Vilnius is expected to reaffirm Western support for Kyiv and edge Ukraine closer to full-scale membership of the defensive alliance in the teeth of Russian opposition.

Putin sends up his Tu-160 strategic bombers for marathon flight in war game warning to the West

The Tu-160 – NATO reporting name Blackjack – is a Russian supersonic variable-sweep wing strategic missile-carrying bomber, dating from the Soviet era

It originally entered service in 1987, and is the world’s largest and heaviest combat aircraft – and the fastest bomber in use.

A pair of Russian MiG-35 fighter jets are seen off the wing of a Tu-95 strategic bomber

Russian bombers perform a mid-air refuelling

The flight and tactical exercise involved ‘more than 10 Tu-160, Tu-95MS, and Il-78 aircraft’, according to Lt-Gen Sergey Kobylash, commander of Russian long-range aviation.

‘Despite performing combat tasks during the special military operation [war against Ukraine], all planned combat training activities are being carried out in full.

‘The flight and tactical exercises of aviation regiments of the Engels and Amur long-range aviation formations were launched.’

The Tu-160 planes landed in Arctic air base Sovetsky near Vorkuta – in Russia’s Komi Republic – after the long flights.

‘A pair of strategic missile-carrying Tu-95MS planes landed at the airfield of Anadyr in the Chukotka Autonomous Area and strategic missile-carrying airplanes Tu-160 landed at the airfield of Sovetskiy in the Komi Republic,’ said Kobylash.

The Tu-160 – NATO reporting name Blackjack – is a Russian supersonic variable-sweep wing strategic missile-carrying bomber, dating from the Soviet era.

It originally entered service in 1987, and is the world’s largest and heaviest combat aircraft – and the fastest bomber in use.

The Tu-95MS planes – known as Bears – are the world’s only propeller-powered strategic bombers.

Both type of planes have been used to target Ukraine with conventional missiles in Putin’s brutal war.

The flights came as Russia prepares to introduce new models of the Soviet-era White Swans into service.

The first prototype of the modernised Tu-160M was delivered seven months ago and this week the start of state trials were announced.

‘The Tu-160 is the most important part of the Russian nuclear triad, so the modernisation of combat vehicles and the resumption of production of these strategic bombers is our priority task,’ said close Putin crony Sergey Chemezov, general director of Rostec State Corporation.

Putin sends up his Tu-95MS strategic bombers in war game warning to the West ahead of next week’s NATO summit.

The Tu-95MS planes – known as Bears – are the world’s only propeller-powered strategic bombers

Russian Tu-85MS ‘Bear’ strategic bomber is pictured taking off

A Russian air force pilot is seen monitoring the controls of a Russian strategic bomber

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky meanwhile is drumming up support for Ukraine’s bid for NATO membership ahead of next week’s summit

Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called on NATO leaders to take concrete steps towards Ukrainian membership at the summit next week, and he received support during a visit to Prague from the Czech president, who backed Kyiv’s bid to join the alliance.

He said his country, engaged in the 17th month of a war against Russian invaders, needed much more than the general statement of more than 10 years’ standing that the door to NATO was merely ‘open’.

Ukraine is seeking a clear indication from NATO at a July 11-12 summit in Vilnius that it can join the military alliance when the war ends.

Ukraine wants to join as quickly as possible, but NATO members have been divided over how fast that step should be taken. Some member countries are wary of moves they fear could take the alliance closer to an active war with Russia.

‘We are talking about a clear signal, some concrete things in the direction of an invitation,’ Zelensky told a news conference alongside his Czech counterpart, Petr Pavel. ‘We need this motivation. We need honesty in our relations.’

Zelensky said the formulation adopted by a 2008 NATO summit was not sufficient – that the military alliance’s door ‘will remain open’ and that Ukraine would eventually become a member.

‘We need some kind of signal, a clear one,’ he said in response to journalists’ questions. 

‘That Ukraine will be in the alliance. Not that the door is open – this is not enough.’