RUSSIA has test fired a nuclear missile just 24 hours after Vladimir Putin made a fiery nuke threat to the West.
Kremlin commanders announced the test firing of a Yars ballistic missile - which can carry nuclear warheads.
Video released by Russian state media showed the 50,000kg, 75ft weapon being fired from a mobile missile launcher.
It came as Putin rattled his nuclear sabre during a rambling two-and-a-half-hour "state of the nation" speech.
The 71-year-old tyrant - who looked sickly and unsteady - warned Nato not to intervene in Ukraine.
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He also boasted about his nuclear arsenal - once again warning he would use the devastating weapons if provoked by the West.
Yars missiles - known to Nato forces as SS-29s - can hit speeds of Mach 25, or nearly 20,000mph.
They can carry nuclear warheads up to a strength of 500 kilotons.
That is nearly 30 times the strength of the bomb dropped by the US on Hiroshima to end World War II.
They can also be armed with multiple warheads to achieve maximum devastation over a wide area.
The missiles can either be fired from silos, trucks or the infamous "nuke train" - which hurtles around Russia.
Russia is estimated to have more than 150 Yars missiles in service - and they have nearly 6,000 nuclear warheads.
In a statement, the Russian military said: "At the Plesetsk State Test Cosmodrome, crews from the Yoshkar-Ola Missile Force conducted a combat training launch of a mobile-based solid-propellant intercontinental ballistic missile PGRK Yars, equipped with a multiple warhead.
"The training warheads arrived at the designated area at the Kura training ground on the Kamchatka Peninsula.
"The purpose of the launch was confirmation of the tactical, technical and flight characteristics of the modern missile system.
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"All assigned tasks were completed in full."
On Thursday Putin delivered his rambling annual address to a glazed audience of Russian elites.
Surrounded by lawmakers and top officials he raged at the West and said Nato forces were "preparing to strike [Russian] territory".
The deranged despot then insisted that the consequences would be "tragic" and brandished the threat of his nuclear rocket Sarmat - known as Satan-2.
Putin also boasted about how Russia has weapons which "could defeat [the West] on their own territory" .
He said: "Strategic nuclear forces are in a state of full readiness for guaranteed use."
Power-mad Vlad crowed how Moscow had used advanced weapons systems, including Zircon hypersonic missiles, in battle.
