New footage that emerged shows a towering Yars strategic missile being driven into a cavernous garage in the Tver region of Russia just northwest of Moscow.
The complex is a few hundred miles from Nato members Latvia and Estonia as well as Belarus.
The deployment was marked by a grand military ceremony in the snow-covered Bologovsky Strategic Missile Forces compound.
A missile regiment in the Tver Region in the Bologoye formation has entered combat duty with a road-mobile Yars system.
A Yars missile can be launched in seven minutes and has a sprawling 7,500-mile range capable of reaching the UK and the US.
Kozelsk missile formation deputy commander for armament Colonel Alexander Khizhnyak said: ‘Work has been completed at the Kozelsk formation to load the next missile into a silo-based launcher.
‘This work is a highly responsible effort requiring that the personnel display high professional skills and accuracy in fulfilling the assigned tasks.’
In an angry speech full of anti-West bluster, Putin warned he would use ‘all available means’ to defend Russian territory amid the Ukraine war.
Western analysts doubt, however, that Moscow would resort to larger nuclear arms and instead would opt for a small tactical strike in an unpopulated area.
