VLADIMIR Putin has put Russia’s fearsome arsenal of "invincible" hypersonic nuke missiles on "combat alert" after clashes with the Royal Navy.
The Kremlin strongman’s announcement comes after HMS Defender was fired on by a Russia coastguard off Crimea and the presence of a UK carrier strike group in the eastern Mediterranean.
Putin issued the chilling warning as he addressed newly graduated military and secret service elites in the Grand Kremlin Palace.
“You are the very ones who will be operating this hardware,” Putin told 400 “top graduates” from 18 military schools.
“Hypersonic weapons – the Avangard and Kinzhal (Dagger) complexes – have already been put on combat alert,” he told the gold-medal winners.
“Other unparalleled weapons systems, including Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missile, Zircon ship-based hypersonic missile and the S-500 Prometheus anti-aircraft systems – to name just a few – are coming soon.”
Putin has previously boasted about his devastating arsenal and described his nuclear weapons as "invincible" in March 2018.
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As he spoke today, the Kremlin chief deployed the Kinzhal – or Dagger – on two MiG-31K warplanes over the eastern Mediterranean, in a military operation monitoring the UK strike group led by aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth.
The Russian Defense Ministry said the pair of jets arrived at the Russian airbase in Syria and flew missions practicing strikes on targets in the Mediterranean.
The weapons – armed with nuclear or conventional warheads – have a range of 1,250 miles and are unmatched in the West, boasts Moscow.
It's the first time the warplanes capable of carrying Kinzhal have been deployed outside Russia's borders.
Speaking to on HMS Queen Elizabeth, Commodore Steve Moorhouse said the eastern Mediterranean is more congested and contested with the heavier Russian military presence in Syria.
That resulted in regular encounters with Russian ships and warplanes and noted that a Russian warship has come within 16 miles of the carrier.
The 188 tonne Sarmat is the biggest beast in Russia’s nuclear arsenal.
It has been shown on video emerging from an underground silo at Plesetsk spaceport – pausing as if hovering above the ground, and then speeding to its target in a cloud of white smoke.
The missile has an 11,000-mile range and can evade the United States’ defence shield, it is claimed.
It is supposedly capable of destroying an area the size of England and Wales — or Texas.
The Zircon, has been identified by Moscow’s state-controlled TV as Putin’s weapon of choice to wipe out American cities in the event of an atomic conflict.
The Russian has called the 6,100 mph Zircon “truly unparalleled … in the world” and tests are due to continue soon in the White Sea.
During the face-off in the Black Sea, coastguard boat barked “change your course or I’ll fire” at the massive Brit warship.
Russian warplanes were them called up join in and buzzed the Type-45 destroyer with four bombs dropped onto its path.
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