Vladimir Putin He raised his tone this Wednesday, December 17, 2025 in a message to the Russian military leadership: If the negotiation attempt fails, he says he is ready in 2026 to achieve his objectives in Ukraine. And he frames it in a story already known from the Kremlin: that “The West unleashed the war” and that Russia “only tried to end it”.
The collateral effect of this threat is not only military, but political: in the midst of an international discussion on how to close the conflict, Putin introduces the idea of an extended war horizon and accompanies it with messages about advanced weaponry.
From kyiv, Volodymyr Zelensky responded in his daily speech, ensuring that Moscow is sending “new signals” that 2026 could be another year of war and asked partners—especially the United States—not to look the other way.
What is the Oreshnik, the “missile ready in 2026” and why “minutes” matter
There has been talk about it in recent months, but the real threat could come in 2026, which is when Russia would have it deployed, with enough range to reach any point in Europe. The Oreshnik is a new Russian medium-range ballistic missile, already in production and with operational deployment planned for 2025, whose eventual placement in Belarus makes a good part of Europe a potential target from 2026according to warnings from Ukraine and several Western analysts.
And what is this about arriving in minutes? Well, with a range between 4,000 and 5,000 km, there is no corner of Europe that is not within reach of that much feared ballistic missile. In 2024, Putin warned that if the United States deployed long-range missiles in Germany from 2026, “similar missiles” in striking distance
On low heat
Putin ordered the development of the system in 2023 and in 2024-2025 The Kremlin and the Russian Ministry of Defense confirmed the move to serial production, with the first complex
“serial” delivered to Russian forces in mid-2025 and the goal of having batteries in combat service before the end of 2025,
If deployment to Belarus and Russian units is completed by the end of 2025, In 2026 Oreshnik would become a stable part of the Russian operational arsenal in the European theaterforcing NATO to adapt anti-missile defense, warning times and response plans.
Like , Russia is also using these announcements to reinforce its message of strength in parallel to the negotiation. International media report that Putin once again insisted that he will achieve his objectives “through diplomatic means or on the battlefield,” and that Russia is boosting its military production.
And from the immediate and possible future, to the present: while we talk about missiles, the real front remains the same as always: drones and missiles as an everyday tool, at the doorstep of the harshest winter that the Ukrainians, with sarcasm, say what .
