Russia's strategic nuclear forces on Wednesday carried out exercises that featured practice missile launches.

The Kremlin said that as part of the maneuvers, a Yars intercontinental ballistic missile was test-fired from the Plesetsk launch facility in northwestern Russia, and a Sineva ICBM was launched by a submarine in the Barents Sea.

The drills also involved Tu-95 strategic bombers firing long-range cruise missiles.

The exercise tested the skills of military command structures, the Kremlin said in a statement.

The chief of the military's general staff reported to Putin via video link that the drills were intended to simulate “procedures for authorizing the use of nuclear weapons.”

The drill came as President Vladimir Putin's planned summit on Ukraine with U.S. President Donald Trump was put on hold.

While Putin emphasized that the exercises had been planned in advance, they came hours after Trump said his plan for a swift meeting with the Russian leader in Budapest was on hold because he didn’t want it to be a “waste of time.”

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Wednesday emphasized that the planned Putin-Trump summit needs to be thoroughly prepared.