> Russia conducted its first major nuclear drills since the start of its war on Ukraine and President Vladimir Putin made unfounded claims that Kyiv was seeking

> Russia conducted its first major nuclear drills since the start of its war on Ukraine and President Vladimir Putin made unfounded claims that Kyiv was seeking to develop a “dirty bomb”, as Moscow continued to ramp up the rhetoric over possible nuclear use in the conflict. > The Russian armed forces on Wednesday practised what defence minister Sergei Shoigu called a “mass nuclear strike with strategic attack forces in response to a nuclear attack by our adversary”, as Putin monitored events via videoconference from the Kremlin. > Addressing security chiefs from a group of ex-Soviet countries after the exercises, Putin said “geopolitical confrontation has sharply increased” and accused the US of using Ukraine as a “battering ram” against Russia. > He repeated claims, without providing evidence, that the US had made Ukraine a “test site for military biological experiments”, complaining that the west was “pumping it up with weapons” and ignoring “provocations” using a dirty bomb, a conventional explosive carrying radioactive material.