Russia deploys Oreshnik missile system in Belarus

Russia has deployed the Oreshnik missile system in Belarus, the Russian Defence Ministry confirmed on Tuesday. The ministry also released footage showing the intermediate-range system, which has an estimated range of up to 5,500 km, for the first time.

Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko said earlier in December that the system would enter service in the country, though its exact location was not disclosed. 

Reuters reported that the system was deployed at the former Krichev airfield in eastern Belarus, near the Russian border.

The first known use of Oreshnik was in November 2024, when Vladimir Putin said the Russian army had targeted “a defence industry facility” in Dnipro, a city in central Ukraine, with an Oreshnik medium-range ballistic missile equipped with a non-nuclear hypersonic warhead.

Putin claimed at the time that “no existing missile defence systems”, including those in Europe, would be able to intercept Russian ballistic missiles such as the Oreshnik.

Last year, Lukashenko also said that “several dozen” Russian nuclear warheads had been deployed in Belarus. That announcement followed the signing of a new security pact between the two allied states that included “mutual defence commitments to protect the sovereignty, independence and constitutional order” of both countries.

John Foreman, an expert with the Chatham House think tank, told Reuters that the deployment of the Oreshnik was intended to extend the missile’s range further into Europe, and was likely a response to plans by the US to station its intermediate-range hypersonic Dark Eagle system in Germany next year.