PTI Photo
Russia on Tuesday released video footage of what it said was the deployment of its nuclear-capable hypersonic Oreshnik missile system in close ally Belarus, a move that would expand Moscow’s ability to strike targets across Europe in the event of a war.State news agency TASS said this was the first time the Russian defence ministry had publicly shown the Oreshnik mobile missile systems. President Vladimir Putin has declared that the missiles are “impossible to intercept”, citing missile speeds reportedly more than 10 times the speed of sound. “A solemn ceremony was held in the Republic of Belarus for the unit outfitted with the Oreshnik road-mobile missile system to assume combat duty. The flag of the Strategic Missile Force was raised after the end of the military ritual of placing crews on combat duty,” the ministry said in a statement.Moscow said the missile systems have entered active service in Belarus, a country that borders Ukraine and NATO members Poland, Lithuania and Latvia. The deployment comes at a time of heightened East-West tensions over Russia’s war in Ukraine and would allow Russian nuclear missiles to reach European targets slightly faster in any conflict. Some Western experts said the development underlined the Kremlin’s growing reliance on the threat of nuclear weapons as it seeks to deter NATO members from supplying Ukraine with weapons capable of striking deep inside Russian territory.Two US researchers told Reuters on Tuesday that the video released by the Russian and Belarus defence ministries gave them confidence that they had accurately identified, using satellite imagery, a disused airbase known as Krichev-6 as the Oreshnik’s deployment site.According to Reuters, Jeffrey Lewis of the Middlebury Institute of International Studies in California and Decker Eveleth of the CNA research and analysis organisation in Virginia said a building shown in the video was the same size and shape as one depicted in a November 19 image from the Planet Labs commercial satellite company. They credited Russian military blogger Dmitry Kornev as the first to match the locations in the video and satellite imagery through geolocation and post his finding on X.The video did not disclose the location of the missile systems. However, it showed mobile launchers and specialist troops camouflaging the systems with netting. A senior Russian officer was shown telling troops that the systems had officially been placed on combat duty and speaking of regular training and reconnaissance routines for the missile crews as light snow fell.Moscow tested a conventionally armed Oreshnik against a target in Ukraine in November 2024. Putin has said the missile’s destructive power is comparable to that of a nuclear weapon even when fitted with a conventional warhead. Intermediate-range missiles can have a range of up to 5,500 km, enabling strikes across Europe from Russia.Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has said that no more than a dozen “Oreshniks” would be deployed, a step his defence minister said was necessitated by what he described as aggressive moves by Western opponents. Lukashenko allowed Russian troops to use Belarusian territory to enter Ukraine in February 2022 but has not deployed Belarusian forces to fight alongside Russian troops, Reuters reported.
