Russia is still pursuing its plans to supply Syria with Yakhont supersonic cruise missiles, Russian Defence Minister Anatoly Serdyukov has confirmed.

“The contract on supplies is in progress,” Serdyukov told journalists in Vladivostok, in Russia’s far east.

Russia had previously confirmed that it would honour a 2007 contract on the delivery of several Bastion anti-ship missile systems armed with SS-N-26 Yakhont supersonic cruise missiles to Syria.

The Yakhont missile, with a range of 300km, has the capacity to carry a 200kg warhead and can cruise several metres above the water surface, making it difficult to detect and intercept, according to RIA Novosti.