As talks between the U.S. and Ukraine on ending hostilities advance, Moscow continues to prosecute its war.
Moscow has placed hypersonic nuclear-capable Oreshnik missiles stationed in Belarus on “combat duty,” the Russian Defense Ministry revealed in a video released Tuesday.
No details were released on how many missiles had been activated and their exact location. The Oreshnik is an intermediate-range ballistic missile capable of speeds of 12,300 kilometers per hour, making it difficult to intercept.
The news came after Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Monday accused Ukraine of launching 91 drones against the private residence of Russian President Vladimir Putin — a claim Kyiv denied.
Talks between Washington and Kyiv on ending Russia’s war on Ukraine have reached a crucial stage, with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump on Sunday to discuss peace terms. Zelenskyy reported that Trump had offered Ukraine 15 years of security guarantees from the U.S.
The Ukraine leader has repeatedly accused Moscow of feigning interest in ending the war while continuing to attack its territory.
Russia had used the Oreshnik, armed with conventional explosives, to strike an industrial complex in the Ukrainian city of Dnipro in November 2024.
Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko said at the time that he had asked Putin to send the missiles to his country, citing anxiety over the presence of Polish and Lithuanian troops near his country’s western border. Lukashenko confirmed delivery of the weapons on Dec. 18.
A year ago, Putin promised to bring the Oreshnik into serial production. Moscow confirmed the deployment to Belarus had been long planned, with the Defense Ministry noting that “launch, communications, security and power supply crew specialists” had undergone “retraining on modern training equipment before entering combat duty.”