(VOVworld) – The Russian army test-launched several ballistic missiles during planned exercises overseen by President Vladimir Putin on Thursday.

A Russian Army's Topol intercontinental ballistic missile launcher rolls past the Kremlin during a rehearsal of the Victory Day parade. (Photo: AFP)

Russian press agencies quoted defense officials as saying that the Russian army launched a Topol intercontinental ballistic missile from its northern test site Plesetsk and several shorter-range missiles from submarines of the Northern and Pacific fleets. The Presidents of Belarus, Armenia, Tajikistan, and Kyrgyzstan attended the event. Putin said the military exercises had long been planned and are not related to political developments in eastern Ukraine.