Vladimir Putin has fired intercontinental ballistic missiles that some Russians mistook for an alien invasion during a snap drill of the country's nuclear forces.

Axar.az reports citing The Telegraph that, the president carried out the launch of four ballistic missiles, his spokesman said on Friday, as part of wide-ranging exercises to test the coordination of Russia's nuclear triad of ground-based missiles, submarines and strategic aviation.

A video released by the defense ministry showed a mobile launcher firing a Topol intercontinental missile from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in northwestern Russia on Thursday night. The missile traversed almost the entire country to strike its target at a testing range in Kamchatka in the far east.

A nuclear submarine fired a missile from the Barents Sea near Norway that made impact at the same testing range. Meanwhile, another submarine in the Sea of Okhotsk north of Japan fired two missiles across Russia in the other direction, hitting targets at a testing range in the Arkhangelsk region.

Strategic aviation including a Tu-160 supersonic bomber also launched cruise missiles at targets in Russia and Kazakhstan.

“Here's my gun, you can take it but only from my cold, dead hands, that's the message Putin is trying to send to the West,” said defence analyst Ruslan Pukhov, paraphrasing the famous Charlton Heston quote.

Residents of northern regions posted photos and videos of a giant ball of light in the sky on Thursday night, saying it was an optical illusion, the "end of the world" or an “alien invasion”. Local media and officials attributed the phenomenon to the missile launches, possibly in interaction with the Northern Lights.

The atomic muscle-flexing comes a week after Mr Putin denied that Russia had violated a landmark 1987 nuclear arms treaty with the United States and said it had “evened out the situation” with its Cold War rival by developing air- and sea-based cruise missiles.

Russia has been modernising its nuclear forces as the United States deploys missile defence shields in Poland and Romania. This week, Kommersant newspaper reported that the defence ministry plans before the end of the year to test-fire a liquid-fueled ballistic missile dubbed the “Satan 2” by Nato. The missile will allegedly be able to carry 16 nuclear warheads, enough to destroy a European country, or a hypersonic weapon.

Russia fired another ballistic missile from the Plesetsk cosmodrome during the Zapad joint war games with Belarus last month. A “nuclear briefcase” with a launch system accompanies Mr Putin wherever he goes.