Vladimir Putin boasts he can hit enemies with an ‘unpreventable strike’ just weeks after Russia fired warning shots in path of British warship.
Vladimir Putin boasted yesterday that Russia had the power to launch an ‘unpreventable strike’ against its enemies in a show of strength following the confrontation with Britain in the Black Sea.
The Russian president told a navy day parade in St Petersburg: ‘We are capable of detecting any underwater, above-water, airborne enemy and, if required, carry out an unpreventable strike.’
It comes as military officials announced tests of advanced new weapons – some of which come from an arsenal Mr Putin has described as ‘invincible’.
He added: ‘The Russian navy today has everything it needs to guarantee the protection of our country and our national interests.’
Putin said Russia had secured its place among the world’s leading naval powers, including by developing ‘the latest hypersonic precision weapons still unrivalled in the world’.
The United States, China, France and other major powers have announced plans to develop their own hypersonic weapons and are expected to soon catch up.
With the second-largest arsenal of nuclear weapons in the world and a huge cache of ballistic missiles, Russia already has more than enough military capacity to deter its enemies.
Russia was marking the 325th anniversary of the founding of its navy with ship parades at major ports on Sunday.
Putin attended the main parade of more than 50 vessels in St. Petersburg, which included ships from the navies of Iran, Pakistan and India.
The Iranian frigate Sahand, which sailed down the Neva River in the parade, and the sea-based vessel Makran attracted attention from naval observers due to their unusually long voyages to Russia.
Parades also took place in the Russian naval bases of Severomorsk, Caspiisk, Baltiisk, Sevastopol, Vladivostok and at the Russian naval base in Tartus, Syria.
Putin’s words follow last month’s incident when Russia said it fired warning shots and dropped bombs in the path of a British warship to chase it from Crimean waters.
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