President Vladimir Putin announced on Friday that Russia will continue testing the hypersonic Oreshnik missile, which was launched at Ukraine a day earlier, and will move forward with serial production of the system.
Putin, in televised comments, said the missile was incapable of being intercepted by an enemy.
"I will add that there is no countermeasure to such a missile, no means of intercepting it, in the world today. And I will emphasize once again that we will continue testing this newest system. It is necessary to establish serial production," he said.
Russia fired the new-generation missile at the Ukrainian city of Dnipro early Thursday in a major escalation of the weaponry being deployed in the nearly three-year conflict.
The Kremlin boss also ordered the missile, which flies at speeds of Mach 10 – 10 times the speed of sound – to be put into serial production. Russia is developing similar advanced systems, he added.
"We need to begin serial production. The decision... has in effect been taken," Putin said, praising the "particular strength of this weapon and its power.
"The weapon system that was tested yesterday is another faithful guarantee of Russia's territorial integrity and sovereignty," he added.
Putin claimed no other countries in the world had such missile technology. While he conceded other states would soon develop them, he said: "That will be tomorrow, after a year or two. But we have this system now. That's important."
His choreographed meeting with the defense minister and those in charge of developing the missile came at the end of a week that has seen the Ukraine conflict escalate rapidly.
Putin said the firing of the Oreshnik missile was a direct response to Kyiv's forces using U.S.- and U.K.-supplied missiles on Russian territory for the first time.
In an address to the nation on Thursday, Putin said Russia reserved the right to fire missiles at military facilities in countries whose weapons are being used by Ukraine – specifically the United States and Britain.
