Russia has said it would hold a military exercise that will include practice for the use of tactical nuclear weapons, Reuters reports. It comes after what the defence ministry said were provocative threats from western officials.

The defence ministry said the exercise was ordered by President Vladimir Putin and would test the readiness of non-strategic nuclear forces to perform combat missions.

The military drills will include practice for the preparation and deployment for use of non-strategic nuclear weapons, the defence ministry said. Missile formations in the southern military district and naval forces will take part.

“During the exercise, a set of measures will be carried out to practice the issues of preparation and use of non-strategic nuclear weapons,” the defence ministry said. Russia has the world’s largest arsenal of nuclear weapons.

The exercise is aimed at ensuring Russia’s territorial integrity and sovereignty “in response to provocative statements and threats by certain western officials against the Russian Federation”, the ministry said.

In other developments:

• A Russian overnight drone attack cut power to over 400,000 consumers in Ukraine’s northeast region of Sumy on Monday, Ukraine‘s energy ministry said in a statement via the Telegram messaging app.

• A Ukrainian drone attack hit vehicles carrying workers in Russia’s frontier Belgorod region, killing six people and injuring 35, the governor said Monday. Belgorod has come under an increasing number of fatal Ukrainian attacks in recent months and Monday’s bombardment is the deadliest in weeks.

• Ukraine will be one of the main items on the agenda as China’s premier, Xi Jinping, visits France. The French president, Emmanuel Macron, and European commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, are expected to urge him to use his influence with Russia.

• Italy’s defence minister said on Monday economic sanctions against Russia had failed and called on the West to try harder to negotiate a diplomatic solution with Putin to end the war in Ukraine. Guido Crosetto told daily Il Messaggero that the West had wrongly believed its sanctions could stop Russia’s aggression, but it had overestimated its economic influence in the world. “Instead … the only way to resolve this crisis is to involve everyone, first (to obtain) a truce and then peace,” Crosetto said.