RUSSIA has fired 2,300mph supersonic anti-ship missiles into the Sea of Japan in a chilling weapons test.
It comes as Vladimir Putin's top security aide insisted the tyrant is ready to "destroy the West" with nuclear weapons.
Moscow's defence ministry said on Tuesday two P-270 Moskit missiles were blasted at mock enemy targets.
A statement posted on Telegram said: "In the waters of the Sea of Japan, missile ships of the Pacific Fleet fired Moskit cruise missiles at a mock enemy sea target.
"The target, located at a distance of about 100 kilometres, was successfully hit by a direct hit from two Moskit cruise missiles."
The P-270 Moskit missile, which has the Nato reporting name SS-N-22 Sunburn, is a medium-range supersonic cruise missile of Soviet origin, capable of destroying a ship within a range of up to 120 km.
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It can hit speeds of 2,300mph and has conventional and nuclear warhead capacity.
Japan's foreign minister Yoshimasa Hayashi said Tokyo will stay vigilant against Moscow's military operations, while adding that no damage had been reported after the missile launches.
Hayashi said: "As Russia's invasion of Ukraine continues, Russian forces are also becoming more active in the Far East, including Japan's vicinities.
It comes as Putin's top security aide Nikolai Patrushev vowed the despot will crush the West if it attempts to defeat and dismember Russia.
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Nikolai Patrushev insisted that Moscow must be allowed to dominate Europe as he claimed: "the collapse of the EU is not far off".
The 71-year-old, seen by some as the brains behind Putin’s ill-conceived war in Ukraine, said: "Some people in the West are already talking about revenge that would lead to a military victory over Russia."
Ignoring Putin’s brutal invasion of Ukraine and threatening full-scale world war, Patrushev claimed: “Russia is patient and is not intimidating anyone with its military superiority.
“However, it possesses unique modern weaponry capable of destroying any adversary including the US in case of a threat to its existence.”
His chilling threats included Putin’s demand to dominate Europe.
The US currently "does as it pleases in Europe ignoring the fact that the leading role on the continent has historically been Russia’s”, he told the Kremlin's newspaper Rossiyskaya Gazeta.
Patrushev added: “The Russian empire's in the 19th century, the Soviet Union's in the 20th.
“That's how it will be in the 21st century as well.”
Putin has made repeated threats against the West as his war in Ukraine rages on.
Last week, the tyrant fired a fresh warning at the UK over plans to potentially arm Ukraine with tank shells containing depleted uranium.
Depleted uranium is a by-product of the nuclear enriching process used to make nuclear fuel or nuclear weapons. It is around 60 per cent as radioactive as natural uranium.
Its heaviness lends itself to use in armour piercing rounds as it helps them easily penetrate steel.
Moscow is fuming over the plan – with one of Putin's officials decrying it as "genocide" and another warning of a "nuclear collision".
Putin vowed Russia would be "forced to react" to any such moves by the UK.
Meanwhile, the dictator has deployed Iskander missile to Belarus, able to obliterate Kyiv and Nato capitals in just two minutes.
Belarus' leader Alexander Lukashenko is a close ally of the Russian president and it marks a major escalation of tensions in the Ukraine war.
Putin insisted the move was the same “as the United States has been doing for decades”.
"We agreed that we will do the same – without violating our obligations, I emphasise, without violating our international obligations on the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons,” he said.
Russia has stationed 10 aircraft in Belarus capable of carrying tactical nuclear weapons, he added.
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Hayashi said Japan condemned the move and demanded Russia and Belarus to stop "such an action that would further increase tensions".
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