Putin began staging the drills shortly after NATO raised defence spending (Picture: East2West)

Russia is staging nuclear war games in a candid warning to the West,just days after NATO countries agreed to raise their defence spending.

Vladimir Putin’s nuclear-capable Yars missile systems were sent on a combat patrol in the Altai region of Siberia.

The RS-24 Yars missile typically carries three or four nuclear warheads,each with a yield estimated between 100 and 300 kilotons,making each warhead between seven and 20 times more powerful than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima.

They have a range of up to 7,500 miles,enabling strikes on both the US and Europe.

They are currently the main element of the ground-based component of the Russian strategic nuclear force.

Defence ministry TV channel Zvezda said the drills were ‘to check the readiness of military personnel,weapons and equipment for long-term duty in field conditions’.

The MOD said Russian soldiers were ‘engineering field positions’ (Picture: East2West)

A statement explained: ‘Soldiers are engineering field positions,organising camouflage and combat security.’

They were exercising in countering ‘enemy scouts and saboteurs’,with support units removing ‘special equipment from areas of simulated chemical contamination’.

The war games are days after the NATO bloc agreed to increase defence spending to counter the danger.

Russia already mocked the spending increase,calling it ‘frenzied’. As foreign minister Sergey Lavrov put it,the 5% rise – which Donald Trump hailed a ‘big win for Europe and… Western civilisation’ – is the ‘talk of the town’.

The Kremlin has previously accused Nato of being on a path of rampant militarisation and portraying Russia as a ‘fiend of hell’ to justify its major increase in defence spending.

Russia,which is spending more than 40% of this year’s budget on defence and security,denies any intention to attack a Nato state.

Allies agreed to raise their collective spending goal over the next decade,citing what they called the long-term threat posed by Russia and the need to strengthen the civil and military resilience.

The drills covered land and air,showing off YARS missiles (Picture: East2West)

NATO’s secretary general,Mark Rutte,even hailed Trump as ‘Daddy’ for dropping the F-bomb live on TV over alleged ceasefire violations in Israel’s war with Iran.

Former Dutch PM Mark Rutte praised the US president,saying: ‘Sometimes daddy has to use strong words.’

The comment came as leaders of the 32-nation alliance gathered in The Hague,to agree the new defence spending target of 5% of the gross domestic product.