Russia to provide closest ally with Oreshnik missiles
Cutting edge Russian Oreshnik hypersonic ballistic missiles capable of flying at up to ten-times the speed of sound will be stationed in Belarus when the system fully enters service, President Vladimir Putin has said.
Putin made the announcement on Friday in Minsk during a meeting with his Belarusian counterpart Alexander Lukashenko.
”These systems will be delivered to the Russian Strategic Missile Forces and will be deployed in parallel on the territory of Belarus,” Putin said.
Lukashenko had asked about obtaining some of the Oreshniks, pointing out that Russia has already deployed nuclear weapons to Belarus and extended its nuclear umbrella to its Union State ally.
”We have places where we can deploy these weapons. With one condition: that the targets will be determined by the military-political leadership of Belarus, and that Russian specialists will service the deployment of the weapons,” Lukashenko said.
Putin agreed and said that the missiles could be deployed in the second half of 2025.
“There are a number of technical issues here that must be resolved by specialists, namely, determining the minimum range, taking into account the priorities of ensuring the security of Belarus,” he told Lukashenko.
Russia’s newest weapon is an intermediate-range ballistic missile which carries kinetic warheads that strike at hypersonic speeds. According to Putin, it is capable of speeds of Mach 10 and cannot be countered by any air defense systems in existence.
The missile, dubbed Oreshnik after the hazel tree, was combat-tested last month against the Ukrainian military-industrial complex Yuzhmash in Dnepropetrovsk. Both Putin and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov have said that the test was a message to the West to stop escalating the Ukraine conflict.
