Belarus’ authoritarian president said on Thursday that Russia has deployed its latest nuclear-capable Oreshnik missile system to the country, a move that comes as talks to end the war in Ukraine enter a critical stage.
President Alexander Lukashenko said the medium-range ballistic missile system Oreshnik arrived in the country on Wednesday and was entering combat duty. He did not disclose how many missiles had been deployed or provide any other details.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday that the Oreshnik would enter combat duty this month, but did not reveal any other details. Putin made the statement during a meeting with senior Russian military officers, warning that Moscow would seek to expand its gains in Ukraine if Kyiv and its Western allies reject the Kremlin’s demands in peace talks.
After Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, U.S. President Donald Trump launched a broad diplomatic push to end nearly four years of fighting, but Washington’s efforts have been met with the demands of a serious conflict between Moscow and Kiev.
Russia has previously deployed tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus, and in February 2022, it used Belarusian territory to launch a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Lukashenko had earlier said the country had dozens of Russian tactical nuclear weapons.
Russia first tested a conventionally armed version of the Oreshnik (Russian for hazelnut tree) in November 2024 to attack a Ukrainian factory, which Putin once boasted was impossible to intercept. He warned the West that Russia might next use it against Kiev’s allies, who can hit Russian territory with long-range missiles.
The Russian leader boasted that Oreshnik’s multiple warheads, which are falling at speeds up to Mach 10 and cannot be intercepted, said some of the warheads intended for conventional strikes could be as devastating as a nuclear attack. Russian state media boasted that the missile could reach the Polish air base in just 11 minutes and NATO headquarters in Brussels in 17 minutes. There is no way of knowing until it hits the target whether it is carrying a nuclear or conventional warhead.
Medium-range missiles have a flight range of 500 to 5,500 kilometers (310 to 3,400 miles). Washington and Moscow abandoned a Soviet-era treaty banning such weapons in 2019.
Putin and Lukashenko have previously stated that the “Oreshnik” will be deployed to Belarus before the end of the year.
When Putin signed a security agreement with Lukashenko in December 2024, he said that even if Russia took control of Oreshnik, Moscow would allow Minsk to choose its targets. He noted that if the missiles were used to attack targets closer to Belarus, their payloads could be much larger.
In 2024, the Kremlin issued a revised nuclear doctrine stating that a conventional attack on Russia by any country with the support of nuclear forces would be considered a joint attack on the country. The threat is clearly intended to deter the West from allowing Ukraine to use long-range weapons against Russia, and appears to significantly lower the threshold for possible use of Russia’s nuclear arsenal.
The revised Russian doctrine also places Belarus under the Russian nuclear umbrella.
Lukashenko has ruled the country of 9.5 million people with an iron fist for more than three decades. His government has been repeatedly hit by Western sanctions for its crackdown on human rights and for allowing Moscow to use its territory during its 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
While maintaining close ties with Moscow, Lukashenko has also sought rapprochement with the United States. On Saturday, Lukashenko released 123 political prisoners, including Nobel Peace Prize winner Ales Bialiatski, as part of a deal with Washington that lifted U.S. sanctions on Belarus’s potash industry, a major source of Belarus’ export revenue.
Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya told The Associated Press on Thursday that the deployment of Oreshnik to Belarus deepens the country’s military and political dependence on Russia.
“Oreshnik’s deployment targets Belarus and militarizes the country, an approach we firmly oppose,” Tsikhanouskaya said. “Putin is using Lukashenko as a gaming tool for the Kremlin.”
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The report has been corrected to say that Putin and Lukashenko had previously said that the Oreshnik missile system would be deployed to Belarus, not Ukraine, before the end of the year.
