Mark Wardrop made “horrifying” threats to beat up and kill the 15- and 16-year-old schoolboys in order to force them to sell cannabis for him in what police call a “county lines’ operation.

A sheriff has praised the “real bravery” of two teenage boys who helped to get a Glasgow drug dealer convicted of human trafficking and extortion.

Mark Wardrop made “horrifying” threats to beat up and kill the 15- and 16-year-old schoolboys in order to force them to sell cannabis for him in what police call a “county lines’ operation.

He threatened to set fire to their parents’ homes in West Lothian by petrol bombing them if they didn’t pay him thousands of pounds in profits from the sale of hash, cannabis oil and ecstasy.

Wardrop was arrested and charged after the quick-thinking 16-year old took a photograph of the number plate on the accused’s white BMW X1 as he drove away.

He was reprimanded for yawning in the dock and continually looking around the courtroom as if bored as the details of his crimes were read at Livingston Sheriff Court.

Wardrop, 22, of Glasgow, appeared for sentence after earlier pleading guilty on indictment to two contraventions of Human Trafficking and Exploitation (Scotland) Act 2015 and one count of extortion.

He committed the offences between 1 August and 3 December 2024.

The court heard he removed the 15-year-old boy’s passport to compel him to co-operate with him.

He also threatened to physically harm the youngster and his parents and to destroy their property in order to extort money from them.

He admitted subjecting the 16-year-old to similar violent threats and exploitation, the court heard, thus making the boys victims of conduct under the trafficking laws which cover forced labour.

Fraser Napier, prosecuting, said the first teenager was compelled to hand over his passport after arranging to meet the accused.

He was supplied with four ounces of cannabis and ordered to sell it and repay Wardrop £700.

As the situation escalated Wardrop threatened to petrol bomb the boy’s home if he didn’t pay more and more money for the drugs he was selling.

A total of £5,000 was eventually handed over to the accused by the youth and his parents before the accused was brought to justice, the fiscal said.

The accused said he would petrol bomb the second boy’s home and threatened to “stab him” and “cut him to bits” if he didn’t pay up.

The youngster paid him £250 at a BMX track in Bathgate West Lothian then a further £130 at a second meeting.

However, after the accused demanded a further payment of £400, the teenager took a picture of his car number plate as he was leaving and contacted the police.

Chloe MacDonald, defending, said her client understood the fear he had caused the young complainers and their parents but claimed he didn’t know his conduct constituted human trafficking.

She said: “He himself suffered repercussions from his drug abuse having been seriously assaulted.

“He was a young and immature man but he’s had the significant benefit of time to reflect on his actions.”

Passing sentence, Sheriff Chloe Miller told the accused: “Your offending throughout this indictment is nothing short of deplorable.

“The numerous threats made to the child complainers and against their families and their homes was horrifying.”

She said a Victim Impact Statement from one of the complainers set out how both the psychological and financial impact of his crimes continued to significantly affect him and she had no doubt the others had been affected similarly by his conduct.

She went on: “The actions of the children in coming forward given the repeated threats against them demonstrates real bravery on their part.

“I hope that they are properly supported to heal from the damage that your crimes have inflicted upon them.”

She described his offending as “truly despicable” and said the charges he had admitted would not be out of place in a High Court case.

She added: “At the core of this offending is the fact that you approached and preyed on children – some of the most vulnerable members of our society.

“This was a prolonged course of conduct, extorting money on a number of occasions. It was planned, sinister and sustained.

“In particular, I draw attention to the fact that the first child had his passport removed from him. The second child was approached in the street and you knew his personal details and used them against him.

“You made significant threats against them both. Influencing, coercing and forcing them into criminal conduct.

“In respect of the adult complainers in charge 3, your conduct resulted in a significant amount of money being extorted from this family in the belief they were helping their child.

“it is my view that there is no other option today but to sentence you to a period of imprisonment.”

She sentenced Wardrop to 656 days imprisonment with a Supervised Release Order keeping him under supervision for six months following his release.

She also imposed non harassment orders banning him from contacting the four complainers for the next 10 years and passed an order to protect their anonymity.

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California’s housing crisis has gotten so bad that even a burned-out house on a busy corner in metropolitan Los Angeles is now worth $1 million.

The boarded-up, three-bedroom, two-bath home in Torrance sold for the eye-popping amount last week, according to multiple real estate websites. That’s despite it being clearly unlivable, with fire damage that includes a gaping hole in the roof.

“It’s a nice part of Torrance,” said NDA Real Estate chief financial officer Rhett Winchell, who handled an earlier auction of the burned-out house last year. “We had a tremendous amount of interest in the property.”

In the latest sale, the 1,140-square-foot, ranch-style house went for 2 percent above list price, according to Homes.com.

The stunning transaction appears emblematic of what the California Legislative Analyst’s Office calls a “serious housing shortage” that has resulted in costs “rising rapidly for decades.”

As of March, the median price of a “mid-tier” home in California was $775,000, more than twice the comparable national average of $366,000, according to the latest figures compiled by the LAO.

The burned-out house in Torrance has been vacant since a blaze broke out inside around 4 a.m. on Feb. 1, 2024, according to a Tuesday report in the Los Angeles Times.

The place was reportedly “dangerously cluttered” and the fire apparently started when a heating grate in the floor ignited something, forcing an older man who was the only person inside to escape through an open window.

The man survived the incident but later died and his house was sold at a probate auction last year, when the high bid was $980,000, plus a selling price that pushed the total to $1.075 million, Winchell said.

The unidentified auction winner resold the house on May 11.

The seller’s agent didn’t respond to an inquiry from The Independent and the buyer’s agent declined to identify his client or say what they planned to do with the property,

But Winchell said that the house “sold for the land value” last year and that the price wasn’t unusual for the area, where comparable homes in “move-in condition” regularly fetch $1.5 million.

Outgoing Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat and potential 2028 presidential candidate, has signed a series of bills aimed at increasing California’s housing stock, including several that led to a surge in construction of so-called accessory dwelling units on residential properties that already have a single or multifamily house.

Estimates of California’s housing shortage vary wildly but their midpoint suggests the Golden State needs an additional 2.2 million housing units — 14.9 percent of the current supply — to meet demand, according to research by the American Enterprise Institute.

Eric McGhee, policy director and senior fellow at the Public Policy Institute of California, said that the laws covering accessory dwelling units were “probably the best of the reforms” and that work on them now accounted for about 20 percent of residential construction in the state.

But it’s unclear if they’re “really helping the housing supply,” McGhee said.

“We don’t know what those are actually being used for,” he said, adding that possibilities included home offices, man caves and short-term vacation rentals.

McGhee blamed California’s housing shortage on backlash to its post-World War II housing boom, with local governments imposing restrictions on new development “in the name of environmentalism or preserving a livable community.”

“It enabled equilibrium for particular communities, but not the state as a whole,” he said.

McGhee said the ideal solution involved making housing construction easier, faster and cheaper, both by easing the permitting process and encouraging the use of “modular, factory-based” methods of building homes.

“This is a long-term problem we’ve created and it’s going take a lot of time to dig our way out of it,” he said.

The Friday letters page urges caution when it comes to the summer showcases, as a reader admits he doesn’t care about PS5 exclusives.

Games Inbox is a collection of our readers’ letters, comments, and opinions. To join in with the discussions yourself email gamecentral@metro.co.uk

Price reduction
So there we have it, another massive price hike for PS Plus and I have officially reached my limit. There’s no way I’m paying for that anymore, not even on Essential, and if that means no more multiplayer than so be it. Maybe I’ll join for just a month, when a new multiplayer game comes out, but I’m sure I’ll manage, especially as Fortnite and games like that are free anyway.

As far as I’m concerned, it’s a disgrace that we’re expected to pay for online in the first place. You don’t on PC and yet for some reason on console you do, even though there are no extra benefits that amount to anything.

I get that Sony has to fleece customers for all they’ve got at the moment, because of rising costs and other things not necessarily their fault. I’m not here to prop up a billion dollar multinational. I will now be cancelling myPS Plus subscription and giving them less money than ever as a result, so I guess that’s had the opposite result of what they were hoping. Will be interested to hear if anyone else is doing the same.
Cranston

Safe secrets
For those worrying about GTA 6 pre-orders I’ve just seen the Take-Two boss saying that the ‘next few weeks’ don’t count as summer. I’m not sure that’s technically true, because June is definitely summer as far as I’m concerned, but to me this reinforces the rumour that nothing is happening till late summer. By which I assume they mean late July or August.

It is funny that no matter how much everything else leaks, almost no GTA 6 rumour ever turns out to be true. Apart from it being set in Vice City and the two main characters I don’t think we’ve heard anything solid about the game at all, in all these years. That includes the price and the dates, which is what people have been interested in the most. So good job, Rockstar. I guess?
Royston

Punished Bubsy
I find it hilarious that Bubsy can’t even get a good game when a decent developer is working on it. I really liked Demon Tides and felt sure that would guarantee Bubsy a good game, since it’s basically an IP you can do anything you like with. But no, 61 on Metacritic.

Now I want to see Nintendo or FromSoftware make a Bubsy game and for it to still turn out terrible somehow. I wonder how the curse started though? Obviously the first game was rubbish, and the 3D one, but there’s been quite a few now and yet not even the law of averages can help the series. It’s like Sonic taken to the extreme, which I guess was supposed to be the point all along.
Bors

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A remake 65 million years in the making
Just a little titbit of information that I think GC and other dinosaur fans will appreciate: the recent re-releases of Dino Crisis have seen its lifetime franchise go up to 4.9 million, overtaking Ōkami. This is important because Ōkami is getting a sequel and Dino Crisis… is not.

I don’t know why Capcom keep ignoring it but if it’s not because they have big plans for it I will be gutted. Although it’s difficult to be surprised by it, considering how long they’ve been trying to pretend it doesn’t exist.

I felt like we got pretty close to a full remake not long ago, when they were hinting at it, so I’m not sure what changed that they suddenly were all against it. Whoever the dino hater is at Capcom they have to go!
Bernie

From summer
I know we’ve had the pirate leak lately but I don’t believe that said anything about when the game would be announced, so I wonder what the chance of seeing a new multiformat From game are next month? The problem is The Duskbloods, which Nintendo will want all the attention, but will they be able to boss From enough not to talk about their other stuff?

I don’t imagine anyone knows the answer to that but with the Elden Ring film reminding me how good that game was I’m feeling From withdrawal symptoms at the moment. It feels like we haven’t even had a decent clone in a while either. Sometimes I think games taking five or more years to make maybe isn’t such a good idea.
Gauntlett

Summer forecast
With the summer showcases coming I think we all need to seriously get in the mindset that they’ll be disappointing so that when they are, we at least have a chance of being excited by the few things they do say.

This Nintendo one in particular… maybe we get the rumoured Zelda remake, but I’d say that was a pretty big maybe. More likely we’ll just get non-events like the rumoured Xenoblade Chronicles 2 Switch 2 Edition and the Devil May Cry 5 port. If there’s more than one big name reveal from Nintendo I feel we will be doing very well.

Xbox I could see showing off Project Helix in some way, but I don’t look forward to their event as you just know how they’re going to go on, pretending they’re this beloved brand and not the richest company in the world that still can’t get games right.

As for Sony, I feel it could go either way. They could do their usual minimum effort or the recent stuff about single-player games could be leading up to them going back to how things were on the PlayStation 4. That sounds too much like fan wishful thinking though. And while I am a fan and I am wishing that would happen I wouldn’t exactly bet on it.
Radish

Day one bonus
Not to ask a silly question but why does anyone want to pre-order GTA 6 anyway? Are you afraid they’re going to run out of digital copies? I know it’s GTA, and I’ll probably get it day one too, but that doesn’t mean I’ll pre-order it. I just don’t get why people do it for any game.

You often have them bragging in the Inbox that they’ve done it and then immediately saying ‘I hope it’s good’ or even ‘I don’t know that much about it.’ These people must love blind bags.

Even if you accept that there’s basically no way that GTA 6 can disappoint you still don’t gain anything by pre-ordering. At most there’ll be a free T-shirt or something with it, that you’ll never use, and that’s it. But the company will already have your money, so I can definitely see why they encourage it.
Bison

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Au contraire
I know I’m seemingly in a minority here (and am being a little contrarian) but as a PlayStation owner I have to admit I’m personally not that bothered about Sony exclusives. I game on the console because it’s the box you buy that plugs into the TV and you don’t need to think about it… and PlayStation 5 is the market leader in that space. When I’m pouring hours into classics Elden Ring, Baldur’s Gate 3, or Clair Obscur I’m not thinking ‘I could be sat in a man cave at a desk doing this, with a keyboard and mouse like I’m at work’. What else would I buy to play the latest games on my sofa, without worrying about fiddling with settings or compromised ports?

I still think (and obviously Valve do too) that there is space in the market for that machine. A machine that just gets out the way and lets you play the games in the living room, whatever those games may be. I’ve always seen console and PC as different markets for that reason, so baffled when readers are like ‘why not just buy a PC’. It’s like telling someone who lives in London and gets the tube around to ‘just buy a car’, because that’s the best way to get around where you live in… I dunno, Kent. Why would they do that it makes no sense?

Also, a little off topic but to be honest Sony’s games mostly aren’t even that good, even in the high point of the PlayStation 4. Sure we’ve got Bloodbourne, Astro Bot, and Returnal… but then what? Loads of bloated and ‘cinematic’ 7/10 action adventures that would rather be TV? Great. Most of them practically play themselves, as if complex gameplay is beneath them.
Marc

Inbox also-rans
I just tried to play Marathon and there weren’t even enough people to get a game at first. I really do worry that Bungie isn’t going to make it to the end of this year.
Blotter

Have to agree with those saying that Saros is not as good as Returnal. I’m enjoying but I wouldn’t say the combat was better, just the same, and a lot of the others tuff, like the worlds and story, are definitely worse.
Gadfly

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MORE: Games Inbox: What will be in the June State of Play for PS5?

MORE: Games Inbox: Is PlayStation right to abandon the PC?

MORE: Games Inbox: When will GTA 6 pre-orders start?

However, his appointments drew criticism from opposition parties at Holyrood, with Meghan Gallacher of the Conservatives saying it appeared Mr Swinney’s government “had been on Mounjaro because it has slimmed down in size” but adding despite this it “still somehow carries all the same political baggage”.

Stan Wildhirt, who represents the Whiteleas ward, was formally appointed during the council’s annual meeting at South Shields Town Hall.

He will be supported in his civic duties by his wife Dawn, who will serve as Mayoress.

(Image: South Tyneside Council)

Councillor Wildhirt said: “To represent South Tyneside as Mayor is a profound honour.

“My focus for the year ahead is firmly with a focus on bringing people together and celebrating the best that South Tyneside has to offer.

“We live in a fantastic Borough with an unbeatable community spirit, and by standing together, we can look to the future with absolute confidence and positivity.”

During the ceremony, outgoing Mayor, former councillor Jay Potts, handed over the Chains of Office.

Councillor Wildhirt outlined his intention to champion the borough’s resilience throughout his mayoral year.

He said: “My Mayoress and I are eager to get out into the heart of our communities to showcase the resilience, talent, and warmth of our residents.

“No matter what challenges come our way, the people of South Tyneside have a remarkable ability to keep moving forward with a smile.

“We want to instil that sense of hope and pride in every corner of our towns and villages.”

Before entering politics, Councillor Wildhirt served as a paratrooper in the British Army and later as a firefighter.

His business career includes growing McGurk Sports into a 17-shop retail network and launching an international manufacturing brand.

He is also a strong supporter of grassroots sport and its role in developing confidence, focus, and healthy lifestyles among young people.

During his time as mayor, Councillor Wildhirt will raise funds through the Mayor’s Charity Appeal in support of five organisations:

The Chloe and Liam Together Forever Trust, Escape Intervention Services, Pawz 4 Thought, The Toby Henderson Trust, and Veterans for Veterans in Care.

Councillor Alan Rice was named Deputy Mayor for the 2026/27 municipal year and will be supported by his wife Margaret.

The annual meeting also saw Councillor Paul Mackings confirmed as the new leader of the council, with the following cabinet appointments:

• Susan Sybenga, Deputy Leader, Finance and Resources
• David Royal, Economic Growth, Regeneration and Investment
• Steve Smith, Housing
• Elliott Curry, Culture, Leisure, Tourism and Voluntary Sector
• Karen Pittuck, Highways, Neighbourhoods and Community Safety
• Michelle Fascione, Children and Families, Education and Skills
• Andy Heywood, Adults, Health and Independence

Hot on the heels of his summit with US president Donald Trump, China’s Xi Jinping hosted his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in Beijing on May 19 and 20.

Headlines spoke of multiple trade agreements, warnings against a return to the law of the jungle in international relations, and a joint declaration on building a multipolar world. But underneath that it was also obvious that this is not a partnership of equals any more – and hasn’t been for some time.

Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Russia has become increasingly dependent on China. But the 2022 proclamation of a “no-limits friendship” between Russia and China has not turned into a strategic alliance between two poles of a new world order.

Beijing is now Moscow’s most important export market for its oil and gas and its most important source of imports, especially of so-called dual-use goods that are critical to sustaining Russia’s war effort against Ukraine. Yet, bilateral trade between Russia and China, while consistently above US$200 billion (£149 billion) annually for the past three years, is not growing that fast.

Notably, Russia is one of the few countries with which China has a trade deficit, albeit a small one, driven by Chinese energy imports. In this context, the continuing lack of a final deal between Moscow and Beijing over the Power of Siberia 2 gas pipeline is remarkable but not surprising. The key disagreements appear to be on price (how much China pays) and volume (how much China buys) and potentially over the length of any such commitments.

This sheds an interesting light on Beijing’s strategic commitments to Moscow, indicating that China is reluctant to commit fully to a long-term and expensive partnership with Russia. China wants Russian gas, but not at any price.

Beyond their economic relations, China also provides critical political and diplomatic cover for Russia in various multilateral formats and helps Russia retain its reputation as a champion of concerns of the global south and critic of a US-dominated global order. This is unlikely to change, with Xi explicitly committing himself and Putin to “continue to offer each other firm and mutual support on matters relating to our respective core interests and key concerns”.

All roads lead to Beijing

Putin is the 12th leader to visit Xi this year. He has followed in the footsteps of, among others, Canada’s Mark Carney, the UK’s Keir Starmer and Germany’s Friedrich Merz. And, of course, his visit followed just a week after Xi’s summit with the US president, Donald Trump. This makes Beijing clearly an important pole in a multipolar order – and a more important one than Moscow.

There is clearly significant ideological alignment between Russia and China, including in their sometimes more veiled and sometimes more explicit criticism of the US. But their shared criticism of US hegemony and unilateralism disguises a crucial difference over what they envision as the end state of the current transition to a new order.

For Russia, a multipolar order in which Moscow is one of the poles, is probably the best that the Kremlin can hope for. Regarding Beijing, the real issue is whether a multipolar order is simply a transitional phase – and the desired endpoint is a new hegemonic order. This would place China at the apex with all the other poles of the multipolar order, including Russia and the US, relegated to second-tier status.

The challenge for China in this context is how to avoid all-out confrontation with the US – the so-called Thucydides Trap, which refers to the near inevitability of war between a rising power (China) that seeks to replace an existing dominant power (the US).

À lire aussi :
Xi warned Trump against the ‘Thucydides Trap’ – here’s what ancient Greece can tell us about US-China relations

For now, war between the US and China is not imminently on the cards. Instead, Russia and China can jointly exploit an opportunity grounded in their shared dislike of a US-dominated world. But not much of this actually translates into a coordinated and effective foreign policy agenda, despite Putin’s and Xi’s rhetorical commitments.

Two of the multilateral flagship projects of China and Russia, the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) and the Brics (shorthand for the bloc of rising powers comprising, among others, Brazil, India, China, South Africa) are not coherent formats. India and Pakistan are members of the SCO and yet fought a war in 2025. Iran and the UAE are both in Brics and now find themselves at opposite sides of the US-Iran war.

What brings Russia and China and their partners together is the dissatisfaction with the previous US-led liberal order, and the opportunities presented in the way in which Trump tries to destroy it. For Russia, its an opening for disruption and chaos. For China, it is in all likelihood an opportunity to accelerate the transition to Chinese dominance.

The clear signal from the Xi-Trump and Xi-Putin summits is that China is not choosing between Russia and the US. This underscores Xi’s rhetorical commitment to a multipolar order. It also indicates that China keeps instrumentalising Russia and the US. Russia is a useful partner – not an ally, and not a vassal yet. The US, meanwhile, is an essential political and economic partner.

This gives reassurance to Russia that, for now, China sees a multilateral order as beneficial, while signalling to the US that China, again just for now, is not seeking to replace the US as the sole superpower.

But neither Moscow nor Washington should be under any illusion that a tripolar order is China’s ultimate goal. This is a transitional strategy to a China-dominated international order through which Beijing hopes to avoid the Thucydides Trap.

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A body has been found in the search for missing 14-year-old Tyler from Stoke-on-Trent, who was last seen on Sunday

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Police have found a body during the search for a missing 14-year-old schoolboy.

Officers had been hunting for Tyler Townsend since Sunday, May 17.

The search came to a tragic end on Thursday evening when Tyler’s body was believed to have been discovered close to Burslem Cemetery.

A Staffordshire Police spokesman said: “We can sadly confirm that a body has been found in the search for missing 14-year-old Tyler, from Stoke-on-Trent.

“He was last seen in the area on Sunday (17 May). Officers have been carrying out extensive searches to try to find him since he was reported missing.

“Shortly after 7pm today (Thursday 21 May), a body was found in a wooded area near Burslem Cemetery.

“Formal identification will take place in due course, but we believe the body to be missing boy Tyler.

“Officers are supporting his family at this deeply distressing time. His death is not being treated as suspicious and a file will be prepared for HM Coroner.”

StokeonTrentLive has contacted West Midlands Ambulance Service for a comment following the tragedy, reports Stoke on Trent Live.

Police are appealing for help to trace a missing 59-year-old man who was last seen in the Scottish Borders before his car was spotted in Northumberland.

Nicholas Mark Oldham, who is also known as Mark, was last seen around 10.30am on Tuesday, May 19, on the A697 near Greenlaw.

The 59-year-old is described as being around 5ft 3ins tall, of medium build, with long grey and white hair.

Officers say his black Nissan Note was then seen near Rothbury in Northumberland on Wednesday, May 20, leading them to believe he may have travelled across the border into England.

Police Scotland says concerns are growing for Mark’s welfare and officers are urging anyone who may have seen him to come forward.

Inspector Gavin Warnock said: “Concerns are growing for Mark’s welfare, and we are keen to trace him as soon as possible to make sure he is safe.

“I’d ask that anyone who has any information or who may have seen someone matching Mark’s description contact Police Scotland on 101, quoting incident number 0897 of 20 May.”

NATO intelligence officials believe Russia is developing underwater nuclear missile systems which could be hidden on the Arctic seabed, according to reports

NATO intelligence officials believe Russia is developing underwater nuclear missile systems which could be concealed on the Arctic seabed, according to reports.

NATO, the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, and Russia have maintained a tense and precarious relationship for decades. The 32-member alliance was established in 1949 to counter the threat of Soviet aggression.

The alliance now concentrates on safeguarding allied nations by guaranteeing that an assault on one member is deemed an assault on all. It has remained the foundation of Western security.

EurAsia Daily reported that NATO intelligence agencies have been observing the Russian Northern Fleet and suspect that efforts are underway to position missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads on the seabed.

German media has reported that the initiative, codenamed “Scythians”, may have been operational for several years.

It is believed that the missiles would be stationed in the Arctic Ocean within Russian territorial waters. They could be positioned at the ocean floor in specially engineered mines or containers.

Reports have suggested that should Russia deploy these missiles, they could remain on the seabed for extended periods and be launched via remote control.

Missile launchers positioned on the seabed would prove extremely difficult to detect and neutralise during wartime.

The Daily Express previously reported that Vladimir Putin’s forces test-fired several nuclear-capable missiles in a chilling threat to the rest of the world.

The Russian Ministry of Defense reported that on Thursday, May 21, as part of nuclear forces exercises, test launches were carried out of the ‘Yars’ and ‘Sineva’ ICBMs, alongside hypersonic missiles from the ‘Zircon’ and ‘Kinzhal’ systems.

Separately, the Belarusian military carried out a test launch of an ‘Iskander’ missile, according to Russian news agency Interfax.

This follows a heated exchange of threats with NATO state Lithuania amid growing concerns over a potential Putin military offensive in the Baltic region.

Alliance fighters were scrambled in Lithuania on Wednesday following reports of drone incursions from Russian ally Belarus, which is currently participating in the nuclear drills alongside Kremlin forces.