NATO’s Steadfast Noon nuclear exercise, hosted by Italy, was kicked off on Tuesday, Oct. 13. At 10:30 GMT on Friday, one German and two Italian air refueling tankers were visible on flight trackers flying orbits over the Tyrrhenian Sea. The Russians are watching.

“NATO has launched its annual exercise Steadfast Noon to practice handling nuclear weapons. The maneuvers involve troops from the alliance’s 17 member states. NATO aircraft are practicing nuclear missions, moreover, in close proximity to Russian borders. Naturally, we are forced to prepare an adequate military response to such provocations. Any state that respects itself would behave in a similar way in our place,” Russia’s Permanent Representative to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), Dmitry Polyansky, said in a speech at a meeting of the OSCE Permanent Council, the text of which was obtained by TASS. The diplomat said he wondered if Brussels understood that such actions could lead “to a direct nuclear conflict on the continent.”