Belarus President Lukashenko asks Putin for Oreshnik missiles

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko asked his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin to deploy state-of-the-art arms systems, including the Oreshnik, in Belarus, BelTA news agency reports.

According to Lukashenko, such a decision would strengthen the defense of both the Union State on the whole and of Belarus in particular in the face of a growing threat from the West.

The Oreshnik missile system can be deployed in Belarus in the second half of 2025, Putin said in response. As soon as such systems begin to enter service with the Russian troops, they would be delivered to Belarus as well. The systems that will be transferred to Belarus will be part of the Strategic Missile Forces of the Russian Armed Forces, but it will be up to Belarus to target the missiles, the Russian president said.

The Oreshnik is a Russian medium-range ballistic missile (MRBM). On November 21, 2024, Russian President Putin announced that Russian forces used the non-nuclear hypersonic version of the Oreshnik to trike a military-industrial complex in Dnepr. The next day, he said that Russia had a stockpile of such missiles ready for use, and their serial production had already been arranged.

The Oreshnik is currently the only officially declared IRBM in service with the Russian army. Its maximum range is 5,500 km, it develops a Mach 10 speed (about 12,400 km/h, or 3 km/s) and can carry a warhead weighing up to 1.5 tons. When carrying a nuclear warhead, the explosive capacity of the missile reaches 900 kt, which is equivalents to 45 bombs dropped on Hiroshima.

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Belarus officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Russia to the east and northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Belarus spans an area of 207,600 square kilometres (80,200 sq mi) with a population of 9.1 million. The country has a hemiboreal climate and is administratively divided into six regions. Minsk is the capital and largest city; it is administered separately as a city with special status.