Putin warns of ‘unpreventable’ strikes by Russian navy

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sunday warned that its navy is able to perform an “unpreventable strike” on enemy targets if it was within the nation’s “national interests.”
Putin was talking in Saint Petersburg throughout a parade of warships, just some weeks after the UK angered Russia by sending a British warship near the annexed Crimea peninsula.
“The Russian navy today has everything it needs to guarantee the protection of our country and our national interests,” he mentioned.
“We are capable of detecting any underwater, above-water, airborne enemy and, if required, carry out an unpreventable strike against it.”
His remarks observe an incident within the Black Sea in June when Russia mentioned it had fired warning pictures and dropped bombs within the path of a British warship to chase it out of Crimea waters.
The British authorities dismissed Russia’s account of the incident.
The nation’s Defense Ministry mentioned any pictures fired had been a pre-announced Russian “gunnery exercise,” and that no bombs had been dropped.
What is the background to the row over Crimea?
Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 however Britain and many of the world acknowledge the Black Sea peninsula as a part of Ukraine, not Russia.
Putin mentioned final month Russia may have sunk the British warship HMS Defender, that it accused of illegally coming into its territorial waters, with out beginning World War Three and mentioned the United States performed a job within the “provocation.”
The Russian chief added that Russia had secured its place among the many world’s main naval powers, together with by growing “the latest hypersonic precision weapons still unrivaled in the world.”
There are a number of different main powers which are planning to develop comparable expertise.
They embody the United States, China, and France say they’ll quickly catch up.
Russia already has the second-largest arsenal of nuclear weapons on the earth and an enormous cache of ballistic missiles.
On Monday, the Kremlin mentioned it had carried out one other profitable check launch of a brand new Zircon hypersonic cruise missile.
The missile was reportedly launched from an Admiral Groshkov frigate situated within the White Sea in northern Russia on Monday, and hit a land-based goal near the coast on the Barents Sea.
Russia says the Zircon missile shall be able to flying at 9 instances the velocity of sound and have a spread of 1,000 kilometers (621 miles).