Russian President Vladimir Putin announced significant advancements in Russia's nuclear capabilities in his Defender of the Fatherland Day address.
He revealed that Russia has nearly fully updated its strategic nuclear weapons stockpile and has started the mass production of Zircon missiles, with other strike systems also nearing the end of their testing phase.
"Taking into account real combat experience, we will continue to comprehensively strengthen the Armed Forces and ensure their constant technical re-equipment and modernisation.
Today, the share of modern weapons and equipment in the strategic nuclear forces has already reached 95% as a whole, and almost 100% in the naval component of the ‘nuclear triad’. Serial production of new hypersonic Zircon missiles has begun. Testing of other strike systems is nearing completion," Putin stated.
Military Modernization
Putin also mentioned new weapons added to Russia's military, like strategic submarines and four Tupolev TU-160M bombers.
He stressed his commitment to enhancing the conventional armed forces with cutting-edge weapons and equipment.
"This work is being carried out systematically and consistently. In recent years, defence industry companies have multiplied the production and supply of the most popular weapons to the troops, primarily precision weapons and unmanned aerial vehicles of various types, tanks, armoured vehicles, and artillery, as well as air defence systems, counter-battery systems, and communications and intelligence equipment," he added.
The Russian leader also mentioned plans for developing and producing promising models and integrating artificial intelligence technologies into the military.
Oleksandr Ruvin, the head of the Kyiv Scientific Research Institute of Forensic Expertise, has reported that the Russian military has fired Zircon experimental missiles into Ukraine at least two times.
One missile landed in the Dniprovskyi district of Kyiv, and another hit the town of Vyshneve, close to Kyiv.
Ruvin pointed out that these experimental Zircon missiles didn't perform as well as Russia had claimed.
This year, Ukrainian forces managed to take down two of Russia's Black Sea Fleet warships. Specifically, on February 1, Ukraine's Group 13 special forces destroyed the missile corvette Ivanovets, and on February 14, they sank the large landing ship Tsezar Kunikov in the Black Sea.
Moreover, in just one week of February, Ukraine's Air Force successfully shot down seven Russian military planes.
