Russian official reveals Oreshnik will be deployed in Belarus soon
TASS news agency reported on February 4 that Alexey Polishchuk, Director of the Second Department for the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) of the Russian Foreign Ministry, said in an interview that Russia's Oreshnik medium-range hypersonic ballistic missile system will be deployed in Belarus according to a previous agreement between the presidents of the two countries.
“Russia, in accordance with its alliance obligations, which are enshrined in the Security Concept of the Union State and the bilateral intergovernmental agreement on Security Assurances for 2024, is ready to provide Minsk with the necessary assistance and take measures to protect the common defense space,” he said.
Mr. Polishchuk stressed that, in this context and according to the agreement between the presidents of the two countries, "Russian Oreshnik medium-range ballistic missiles will also be deployed in Belarus."
In late January, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko announced that Russia's Oreshnik hypersonic system would be deployed in the country "at any moment." According to Lukashenko, the missiles could be located near the city of Smolensk.
Russian President Vladimir Putin announced on November 21, 2024 that the United States and its NATO allies had previously announced that they would allow Ukraine to use long-range weapons to strike inside Russian territory. Subsequently, American and British missiles targeted Russian military facilities in the Kursk and Bryansk regions.
Mr Putin said Russia responded to those attacks by launching Russia’s newest Oreshnik medium-range hypersonic ballistic missile, which carries a non-nuclear warhead, at a Ukrainian defense industrial facility – the Yuzhmash Plant in Dnepr (formerly Dnepropetrovsk). The Russian leader stressed that the West’s provocative policies could lead to serious consequences if the conflict continued to escalate.
For his part, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said after a meeting of the Union State Supreme Council in Minsk on December 6, 2024 that he had proposed to President Putin to deploy Oreshnik missiles on the territory of Belarus.
The Russian president said that the delivery of these missiles could be carried out in the second half of 2025. Later, Mr. Lukashenko revealed that Belarus has about 30 locations that can be used to deploy Oreshnik missiles.