Moscow has agreed to the nuclear-capable missile’s deployment in Belarus to bolster joint deterrence of NATO
Belarus plans to have Russia’s nuclear-capable Oreshnik medium-range missile system fully ready to operate on its territory by December, presidential spokeswoman Natalia Eismont announced on Tuesday.
Eismont confirmed the timeline to the media following President Alexander Lukashenko’s meeting with senior military officials in Minsk earlier in the day. She emphasized that the deployment is proceeding as planned and dismissed speculation that the joint initiative could be delayed or canceled.
Lukashenko previously said the only scenario that could alter Minsk’s plans would be if European NATO members agreed to refrain from hosting similar nuclear-capable weapons.
“Several European nations have already declared their intentions to deploy medium-range missile systems. Why should we be blamed [for responding in kind]?” the Belarusian leader said during a recent security conference.
The Oreshnik system is part of Moscow’s new generation of deterrence weapons developed in response to the US-initiated collapse of Cold War-era arms control agreements. Its production followed the US withdrawal from the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty under then President Donald Trump, an agreement prohibiting both nations from making such weapons.
A conventional version of the Oreshnik was first tested last November, striking an arms plant in Ukraine, with the Defense Ministry saying it picked the target in retaliation for Kiev’s use of long-range weapons provided by the US and the UK for strikes on Russian territory.
President Vladimir Putin noted that even the weapon’s non-nuclear variant can achieve the destructive effect of a tactical nuclear strike due to its powerful multiple independently targetable reentry vehicles (MIRVs). He also challenged Western nations to a “high-tech duel” between the Oreshnik and their anti-missile systems, to be conducted in Ukraine, which was taken as a rhetorical statement in NATO.
The upcoming deployment of Oreshnik missiles in Belarus underlines the strategic partnership between Minsk and Moscow. Both nations have said they are mirroring NATO’s own “nuclear sharing” arrangements, under which US atomic weapons are stationed in several European member states.
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