Russia has revealed a 'successful' test of its 6,670mph hypersonic Zircon missile fired from a warship in the White Sea.
The 'unstoppable' weapon hit a target some 250 miles away from the Admiral Gorshkov frigate, the Moscow defence ministry said on Monday.
At the weekend Russia announced it has started serial production of the deadly missile amid acute tensions with the West.
The go-ahead for full-scale production at a top-secret plant at Reutovo, near Moscow, came ahead of completion of state tests.
Separately, Belarus dictator Alexander Lukashenko has vowed to join forces with Russia in the event of a new war in Europe.
Russia has revealed a 'successful' test of its 6,670mph hypersonic Zircon missile fired from a warship in the White Sea (pictured left and right). The 'unstoppable' weapon hit a target some 250 miles away from the Admiral Gorshkov frigate, the Moscow defence ministry said
China's testing of a 25,000mph hypersonic nuclear-capable missile has indicated that Beijing's missile programme is more advanced than previously thought, amid an intensifying race for the next generation of long-rang weapons that are harder to detect and intercept
The West realises that if it triggers a conflict on the Russian border, Minsk will not stand aside, he said.
'They understand perfectly well that if they once again start a war in the Donbass (eastern Ukraine) or somewhere else on the border with Russia, Belarus will not stand aside. And it's clear whose side Belarus will take.
'They understand it, which is why they have begun to strengthen their northern border, the Ukrainian-Belarusian border, although there is no reason to do it at the moment.
He said: 'I don't have information about Russia's plans to attack Ukraine, while if such plans existed, the Belarusian military, me included, would have been aware of them.'
The EU has accused Lukashenko of waging a 'hybrid attack' against the bloc, using desperate migrants as pawns and tricking them into trying to cross into EU members Poland and Lithuania to destabilize the entire bloc.
The EU says that is Lukashenko's revenge for EU sanctions imposed on Belarus after its brutal crackdown on democracy protesters.
Separately, Belarus dictator Alexander Lukashenko (pictured left on Friday visiting migrants at the Poland-Belarus border) has vowed to join forces with Russia in the event of a new war in Europe
The go-ahead for full-scale production followed other 'successful' tests of the Mach-9 capable missile which Russia boasts will evade all Western defences.
Vladimir Putin has ordered the missile to be deployed next year by the Russian Navy boasting that it is 'truly unparalleled…in the world'.
Two weeks ago, there was a successful test of the hypersonic missile from a frigate in the White Sea on 18 November.
A month earlier the Zircon was fired from a submarine for the first time.
It has been identified by Moscow's state-controlled TV as Vladimir Putin's weapon of choice to wipe out American cities in the event of an atomic conflict.
The Zircon (Tsirkon) hypersonic missile was also successfully fired at a ground
