Overview
- Belarus’s defense ministry said the Oreshnik missile division has begun combat patrols in designated areas of the country.
- Russia’s defense ministry published video of the deployment and said personnel were retrained as the unit masters new patrol routes.
- Russian sources claim the road‑mobile system is nuclear‑capable with a range of about 5,000 km and say a launch from Belarus could reach London in roughly eight minutes.
- Alexander Lukashenko publicly endorsed the deployment as a show of strength, and reporting states launch authority remains with Vladimir Putin.
- Putin said an Oreshnik was used in a November 2024 strike on Dnipro without a live warhead, and the United States later confirmed Russia fired a ballistic missile derived from the RS‑26 Rubezh.