Russia has said it will develop a new hypersonic missile and a land-based version of an existing cruise missile by 2021 following the demise of a key nuclear arms control treaty with the US.

On Tuesday, defence minister Sergei Shoigu issued a deadline to top brass to create a long-range, land-based hypersonic missile as well as modify the air-and-sea-based Kalibr cruise missile, which he said had “recommended itself well in Syria”.

At the meeting in the military's three-tiered, high-tech “war room” in downtown Moscow, he also called for the range of all missiles under development to be extended.

Vladimir Putin said Russia would leave the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty and develop new weapons on Saturday, the day after the United States announced its withdrawal.

Donald Trump, the US president, has accused Moscow of violating the treaty with “impunity”, a reference to years of complaints that it was secretly developing a prohibited missile.