- Belarus announced the deployment of the Russian Oresnik missile on its territory.
- The Orešnik missile was previously used in the conflict in Ukraine.
- Belarus is a key ally of Russia.
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko announced on Thursday that the new Russian medium-range ballistic missile Orešnik (Lieska) capable of carrying a nuclear warhead was deployed in Belarus. TASR informs about it according to the report of the AFP agency.
“Orešnik has been in Belarus since yesterday and is going on combat duty,Lukashenko declared in his annual address. Belarus already announced in August that it plans to practice the deployment of Oresnik missiles during the joint Russian-Belarusian military exercise Zapad-2025.
Russian President Vladimir Putin announced in November 2024 that Russia had hit the eastern Ukrainian city of Dnipro with a new medium-range Oresnik missile. This comes more than a year after Ukraine reportedly destroyed one of those missiles. Moscow deployed tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus as early as 2023, and has also talked about deploying Oresnik in this country in the past.
The AFP agency reminds that Belarus is a former Soviet republic and a key ally of Russia. This also used Belarusian territory to start the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
