President Vladimir Putin warned on Sunday that the Russian navy can detect any opponent and launch an "unpreventable strike" if necessary, weeks after a British warship enraged Moscow by traveling through the Crimean peninsula.

“We can detect any underwater, above-water, or airborne enemy and, if necessary, carry out an unstoppable strike against it,” Putin stated during a naval day parade in St Petersburg.

Putin's remarks come after a June incident in the Black Sea, in which Russia said it fired warning shots and dropped explosives in the route of a British warship to chase it out of Crimean waters.

Britain dismissed Russia's version of events, claiming that any bullets fired were part of a pre-planned Russian "gunnery exercise" and that no bombs were dropped.

In 2014, Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine, but the United Kingdom and most of the rest of the world consider the Black Sea peninsula to be part of Ukraine, not Russia.

Last month, Putin said that Russia could have sunk the British vessel HMS Defender, which is accused of illegally entering its territorial seas, without triggering World War Three, and that the US played a role in the "provocation."