Videos Show Sirens Howl Across Russia in Country-Wide Emergency Drill

Videos circulating on social media show the moment sirens blared across Russia as part of a national emergency drill on Wednesday.

Russian authorities asked the public on Tuesday to "remain calm" during the drill, which come as tensions between Russia and the West remain high after President Vladimir Putin 's full-scale invasion of Ukraine last year.

"Hearing the sound of a siren, you need to remain calm and not panic, turn on the TV—any publicly accessible channel or radio—and listen to the information message," Russia's Ministry of Emergency Situations (MCHS) said via its Telegram channel. "The warning system is designed to timely convey a signal to the population in the event of a threat or emergency of a natural or man-made nature."

The ministry said such drills are necessary "to be confident in the performance of all existing systems for the timely delivery of signals and information to the population in the event of emergency situations."

Agentstvo, an investigative site launched in 2021, published several videos of the sirens going off on Wednesday, noting that the drills began at 10:43 am Moscow time, and lasted for one minute.

However, in at least one place in Russia's capital Moscow, the alert went off at night, the publication reported, referencing a video published by eyewitnesses.

According to independent Russian news outlet Meduza, such drills are carried out in Russia at least once a year.

The US is also conducting a national emergency alert exercise on Wednesday. The US Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) said that beginning at approximately 2:20 pm ET, it will conduct a nationwide test of its Emergency Alert System (EAS) for TVs and radios, and Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA) for phones.

Cell towers will broadcast a signal for approximately 30 minutes, causing WEA-compatible wireless phones that are switched on, within range of an active cell tower and whose wireless provider participates in WEA, to receive the test message.

The EAS portion of the test is scheduled to last approximately one minute, FEMA said.

Orlando Olivera, Coordinator of FEMA's Caribbean Area Office in Puerto Rico, said in a statement that the federal agency wants to "ensure that the systems continue to be effective" and that "the public understands and uses these alerts and warnings about emergencies, particularly those on the national level, as we work to strengthen emergency preparedness among our communities."

The US Federal Communications Commission, FEMA and MCHS, didn't immediately respond to Newsweek's requests for comment via email.

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