Russia's most advanced nuclear-powered submarine has test-launched a Bulava intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) for the first time and hit a target thousands of kilometres away, the Defence Ministry says.

Key points: The missile fired was previously banned under a Cold War-era treaty with the US

Some fear that the US and Russia have launched a nuclear arms race

The last major nuclear arms treaties between the two powers is due to expire in 2021

The test was carried out on Wednesday (local time) from the Knyaz Vladimir submarine, a Borei 955A-class vessel submerged in the White Sea near Russia's Finnish border.

Carrying a fake payload, the missile hit a test site in Russia's far-east region of Kamchatka near the Bering Sea, according to the ministry.

The submarine is the first upgraded 955A model to be produced in the Borei class of Russian nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines.

Map Russia's Defence Ministry claims the missile was fired from Russia's Finnish border to a target in the far east region of Kamchatka.

It will enter service with Russia's Northern Fleet at the end of this year once it has completed trials including weapons tests, the fleet's commander, Vice Admiral Alexander Moiseev told Russian news agency, TASS.

The new submarines are designed to be harder to detect than previous ICBM-armed nuclear subs.

The test comes amid fears of another arms race between Moscow and the West following the demise of the Cold War-era Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF).

The treaty, ratified in 1987, banned the US and the Russian Federation — previously the Soviet Union — from developing, testing and possessing ground-launched nuclear cruise missiles with a range of 500 to 5,500 kilometres.

The US pulled out of the treaty in August, citing concerns over what they claimed were Russia's treaty violations.

American observers said Russia's Novator 9M729 cruise missile violated the pact — a missile which NATO has classified as an intermediate-range missile that "lowers the threshold for nuclear conflict".

This Russian land-based cruise missile prompted the US to accuse Moscow of violating the INF treaty. ( AP: Pavel Golovkin )

However, Russia has rejected these claims.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters in February that Washington had refused to talk with Moscow about its withdrawal announcement.

"The unwillingness of the Americans to listen to any arguments [and] the unwillingness of the Americans to hold any substantial talks with us indicates that the decision to scrap this treaty was made in Washington long ago," Mr Peskov said.

Some experts believe the INF treaty's collapse could undermine other arms control agreements and speed up an erosion of the global system designed to block the spread of nuclear arms.

The last major nuclear arms control treaty between Russia and the United States, the New START treaty, is due to expire in 2021.

It limits the number of strategic nuclear warheads the world's two biggest nuclear powers can deploy.

The US and Russia let the INF treaty lapse in August 2019. ( AP: Russian Defense Ministry Press Service )

ABC/Reuters