Russia has deployed a new Yars intercontinental ballistic missile at the Kozelsk base in the Kaluga region, southwest of Moscow, the RIA news agency cited the defense ministry as saying on Wednesday.

Russia has described the Yars missile, developed in the 2000s and capable of carrying multiple thermonuclear warheads, as one of its newer weapons capable of piercing the missile shield used by the United States and its allies.

The Kozelsk regiment, where the new missile was loaded into a silo, was the first one in Russia's Strategic Missile Forces to start upgrading to silo-based Yars missiles, RIA said.

The missiles were initially deployed at other regiments in a mobile version.