Russian Oreshnik Missile System to Be Deployed to Belarus

Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko has requested Vladimir Putin to deploy the Oreshnik missile system to the territory of Belarus. 

Lukashenko addressed Putin in a meeting of the Supreme State Council of the Union State in Minsk, Belarus on December 6.

“Recently, Russia successfully launched the Oreshnik. This has had a certain impact on our former partners, now competitors. Please don’t take this as impudence, but I want to publicly ask for new weapons systems, particularly the Oreshnik, to be stationed on Belarusian territory,” he said.

In an address delivered in Minsk, Belarus on November 6, Putin granted the request, stating that the Oreshnik could be transferred to Belarus in the second half of 2025, once mass production is established.

In November, the Russian leader announced that the Kremlin would begin the large-scale production of the Oreshnik missile system.

The Oreshnik is a ballistic missile capable of carrying nuclear warheads. It was first used by Russia in an attack launched on the Ukrainian city of Dnipro on November 21. Earlier, Belarus was linked to the attack on Dnipro, having supplied the Federal Scientific and Production Center "Titan-Barricades" in Volgograd, which was involved in the development of the Oreshnik system.

At the same meeting in Minsk on December 6, Putin and Lukashenko signed an agreement finalizing the deployment of Russian tactical nuclear arms in Belarus, effectively putting control of these weapons under Moscow’s “nuclear button."

With this move, Belarus has officially violated the Treaty on the NPT after cementing a bilateral agreement with Russia granting it access to Russian nuclear weapons stationed on its territory.