On December 30, Russia’s Ministry of Defense officially announced that the Oreshnik missile system had been placed on combat duty on Belarusian territory. The ministry also published a video featuring the weapons system on its Telegram channel. According to Russian news agencies RIA Novosti and TASS, the footage shows Oreshnik publicly for the first time.
Officials did not disclose the exact location of the missile system. However, earlier a number of military analysts, citing satellite imagery, suggested that Oreshnik could be located near the town of Krichev in eastern Belarus. The area lies about 300 kilometers from Minsk and 180 kilometers from the Ukrainian border.
Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko said on December 10 that Russia had brought “dozens” of tactical nuclear warheads into the country. He noted that Oreshnik missiles would be deployed at special sites where strategic nuclear weapons were stationed in Soviet times. Lukashenko added that Belarus has around 30 such facilities.
The Belarusian leader described the decision not as an act of aggression, but as a response to growing risks and modern threats in the region.
As a reminder, on November 21, 2024, Russian President Vladimir Putin said a non-nuclear hypersonic ballistic missile strike had been carried out on the Ukrainian city of Dnipro, adding that the newest medium-range Oreshnik system was used in the operation. According to the Russian side, the missile’s range reaches from 1,000 to 5,500 kilometers.
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