Putin ordered - they pressed the "nuclear button" PHOTO/VIDEO

This was announced by the special nuclear unit of the Russian army.

The Russian Ministry of Defense pointed out that the launches were simulated, but that everything else was carried out by the troops to make it look like a real attack.

Footage they released showed a navy crew pressing a "nuclear button" from a warship believed to be in the Baltic Sea to hit a target some 350 kilometers away, while nuclear-armed Tu-22M3 bombers were filmed taking off from an unknown runway.

Meanwhile, a ground mobile crew in the Leningrad Military District in northwestern Russia was shown loading short-range mobile ballistic missiles suspected of being capable of carrying nuclear weapons, although the warheads were blurred in the footage.

The disturbing footage comes as the US announces an expansion of its sanctions regime against the Kremlin, prompting Russian Security Council Deputy Chairman Dmitry Medvedev to say Moscow should inflict "maximum damage on the US and its allies".

Newsweek writes that on Wednesday, the scenario of joint military exercises between Russia and Belarus was suddenly changed, and Moscow and its ally began exercises for their troops in tactical nuclear weapons right next to the NATO border.

Vladimir Putin ordered these military exercises in May in response to what they said were provocative statements and threats from the West.

On May 21, Russia's Ministry of Defense announced that the first phase of the exercises had begun, including "practical testing of the preparation and use of non-strategic nuclear weapons" in the country's Southern Military District.

The second phase of exercises of Russian and Belarusian troops began on Tuesday. But on Wednesday, in a statement on the Telegram platform, Russia's Defense Ministry announced that the newly established Leningrad Military District - located near Finland and the Baltic states - had also joined the nuclear maneuvers.

The establishment of the area was announced in February in response to Finland's entry into NATO.

"As part of the second stage of the exercises of the non-strategic nuclear forces, the personnel of the missile formation of the Leningrad Military District are rehearsing the tasks of combat procurement of special training ammunition for the operational-tactical missile system Iskander-M., equipping launch vehicles and secretly advancing to a specific position for launching missiles," it said.

It was also said that the Russian Navy will be involved in everything and that the crew members will equip 'cruise missiles with special warheads for training', as well as enter certain patrol areas.

After Putin established the Moscow and Leningrad Military Regions in February, the US think tank Institute for the Study of War (ISV) said the move indicated he was preparing for a potential full-scale war with NATO in the future. The ISV said at the time that the re-creation of the aforementioned military areas "supports the parallel goals of consolidating control over Russian operations in Ukraine in the short and medium term and, in the long term, preparing for a potential future major conventional war against NATO."

The Leningrad Military District is a key component of the Russian Armed Forces that oversees the defense of Russia's western region.

Russia has warned that the West's actions could force it to change its nuclear doctrine, which sets out the conditions under which it can use such weapons.

On June 7, at the International Economic Forum in St. Petersburg, Putin said that his country's nuclear doctrine is a "living instrument" that can be changed.

"Russia closely monitors what is happening in the world around us and does not rule out some changes in this doctrine," Putin said at the time.