An S-300 air defense missile system launches a missile during the Keys to the Sky competition at the International Army Games 2017 at the Ashuluk shooting range outside Astrakhan, Russia August 5, 2017. (REUTERS PHOTO)

MOSCOW, Oct. 26 (Xinhua) -- Russia on Thursday conducted large-scale military drills to test the combat readiness of its strategic nuclear forces, including launches of multiple ballistic missiles, Russian Defense Ministry said.

"Practical combat actions of the personnel of command-and-control centers of the Russian Strategic Missile Forces, crews of the nuclear-powered submarines of the Northern and Pacific Fleets, strategic missile carriers and long-range bombers of the Aerospace Forces were tested during the training," the ministry said in a statement.

According to the ministry, a nuclear submarine of the Pacific Fleet carried out a salvo launch of two ballistic missiles from the Okhotsk Sea towards the Chizha test range in northern Russia, while a Northern Fleet nuclear sub launched a ballistic missile from the Barents Sea towards the Kura test range in Russia's Far East.

In addition, a unit of the Strategic Missile Forces also fired a Topol intercontinental ballistic missile from Russia's Plesetsk cosmodrome towards the Kura test range, the statement said.

Long-range bombers Tu-160, Tu-95MS and Tu-22M3 also fired air-based cruise missiles at ground targets at Kura, Pemboy (Republic of Komi) and Terekt (Kazakhstan), it said.