President Vladimir Putin has confirmed that Russia’s latest hypersonic missile, the Oreshnik, has officially entered military service and will be deployed in Belarus by the end of 2025. The announcement signals a significant escalation in Moscow’s confrontation with NATO, particularly over the war in Ukraine.
Speaking alongside Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko on Valaam Island near St. Petersburg, Putin said that deployment sites in Belarus had already been selected. “Preparatory work is ongoing, and most likely we will be done with it before the year’s end,” he stated. “The first series of Oreshniks and their systems have been produced and entered military service.”
The Oreshnik missile, named after the Russian word for hazelnut tree, reportedly made its combat debut in November when Russia launched it at a missile production facility in Dnipro, Ukraine. Russian military officials claim the missile can carry both conventional and nuclear warheads and travel at speeds up to Mach 10, allowing it to bypass most Western missile defense systems.
Putin emphasized the missile’s destructive potential, saying that “its multiple warheads that plunge to a target at speeds up to Mach 10 are immune to being intercepted.” He added that “the use of several of them in one conventional strike could be as devastating as a nuclear attack.”
The Russian president also issued a stern warning to NATO countries supplying long-range weapons to Ukraine, suggesting that Moscow could use Oreshnik missiles in retaliation beyond Ukrainian territory.
“If Kyiv uses NATO-supplied missiles to strike Russia, we could respond using systems like Oreshnik, even beyond Ukraine,” Putin warned.
Belarus, which shares a 673-mile border with Ukraine, has become increasingly militarized since the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. Last year, Putin and Lukashenko signed a security pact that placed Belarus under Russia’s nuclear umbrella, allowing for the stationing of Russian tactical nuclear weapons within Belarusian territory.
President Lukashenko, who has ruled Belarus for over three decades, has become one of Moscow’s closest allies. In December, he claimed that Belarus already hosts “several dozen” Russian nuclear weapons. With the upcoming deployment of Oreshnik missiles, Belarus is set to become a crucial forward operating base in Russia’s strategic calculus against the West.
