Russia, NATO hold nuclear drills as Ukraine villages pounded

By ANDREW MELDRUM
Associated Press

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — NATO and Russia’s military alike are staging planned annual nuclear exercises. Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday remotely monitored the drills of his strategic nuclear forces, including multiple practice missile launches. The exercise simulated a “massive nuclear strike” retaliating for a nuclear attack on Russia. NATO is carrying out its own long-planned nuclear exercises in northwestern Europe. Putin repeated the unfounded claim that Ukraine plans to set off a radioactive “dirty bomb.” He said, without evidence, that Ukraine plans such an act “as a provocation” and contended the United States was using Ukraine as a “battering ram” against Russia and its regional allies. On the battlefront, Russian forces targeted more than 40 villages in Ukraine.