JAKARTA - Russia will continue to increase attention for its increased nuclear power, and will begin mass shipments of Zircon hypersonic missiles launched from the sea, President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday.
In a speech to mark the country's Defenders' holiday, President Putin also said Russia would continue to equip its armed forces with sophisticated equipment.
"As before, we will increase our attention to strengthening the nuclear triad," President Putin said, referring to ground, sea and air-based nuclear missiles.
In addition, President Putin said, for the first time, the Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missile - a weapon capable of carrying multiple nuclear warheads - would be deployed this year.
"We will continue the mass production of the air-based hypersonic Kinzhal system and will begin the mass supply of marine-based Zircon hypersonic missiles," he said.
President Putin made his remarks two days after announcing Russia would suspend the New START agreement, the last remaining arms control agreement with Washington.
Russia and the United States are the two largest nuclear powers in the world, with the second power reaching 90 percent of the world's nuclear warheads.
It is known that the New START 2010 Agreement limited the nuclear warheads deployed by each country to 1,550, while heavy bombers and bombers were deployed up to 700.
The suspended agreement grants each side the right to inspect each other's weapons sites, although visits have been halted since 2020 due to COVID and Ukraine's war, requiring both sides to provide detailed notification of their number, location, and technical characteristics of strategic nuclear weapons.
Each side must notify others, for example, when intercontinental ballistic missiles will be transported from production facilities.
According to the US State Department, both sides have exchanged more than 25,000 notifications since the agreement came into force in 2011.
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