Russian President Vladimir Putin announced Friday that the country’s latest hypersonic missile, known as the Oreshnik, has entered production and joined frontline units. Speaking alongside Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko on Valaam Island near Saint Petersburg, Putin said that Moscow has already identified Belarusian sites for the intermediate-range ballistic weapon and expects to complete preparations before year-end.
First tested in combat last November, the Oreshnik—named for the hazelnut tree—features multiple warheads capable of striking at speeds up to Mach 10 and is designed to evade existing air defenses. Putin asserted that a conventional salvo of several Oreshniks could inflict devastation “on the order of a nuclear strike,” and he warned NATO members that harboring Ukrainian longer-range systems could invite their use against allied territory.
Russia’s missile forces chief has confirmed that the Oreshnik, which can carry either conventional or nuclear payloads, boasts a range sufficient to cover all of Europe. These intermediate-range systems—able to fly between 500 and 5,500 kilometers—had been barred under the Cold War–era INF Treaty, which both Washington and Moscow abandoned in 2019.
Under a security pact signed last autumn, Belarus agreed to host Russian nuclear forces and grant mutual defense guarantees. Lukashenko has already permitted Russian troops and tactical nuclear weapons onto Belarusian soil, though official figures remain undisclosed; he noted in December that “several dozen” nuclear warheads are stationed there. The deployment brings Russian missiles and bombers closer to Ukraine’s northern flank and increases their reach into Central and Eastern Europe.
The Kremlin’s revised nuclear doctrine, also unveiled last year, further lowers Moscow’s threshold for first use. It authorizes nuclear retaliatory strikes not only in response to weapons of mass destruction but also to any “aggression” with conventional arms that threatens Russian or Belarusian sovereignty. Putin and Lukashenko’s statements on Friday underscore the deepening military integration of the two allies and signal a heightened risk of rapid escalation in Europe’s east.
