Russia is preparing to deploy its new hypersonic Oreshnik missiles in Belarus in 2025, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said on Tuesday, the 10th of December, adding that his country is currently deciding where to deploy the Russian-supplied missiles, citing Belarusian state media, reports Politico.
Lukashenko said he had asked Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday to allocate the new missiles, citing concerns about escalation over the presence of Polish and Lithuanian troops near Belarus’ western border.
“The Russians will supply us with missiles for free,” Lukashenko said, adding that Belarus would choose itself whom to target with the missiles.
Andrii Kovalenko, head of Ukraine’s Anti-Disinformation Centre, wrote in a Telegram message that the missile
“deployment in Belarus will be spread for purely informational purposes” to create fear in Europe following the decision of some countries to allow Ukraine to use its weapons to attack Russian targets.
Late last month, Russia used an Oreshnikov missile to hit Dnipro in response to Ukraine’s use of advanced Western weapons. Putin has claimed that the missile could not be intercepted by any anti-missile system and warned that Russia could take action against countries supplying arms to Ukraine.
The new hypersonic ballistic missile reduces the need for nuclear weapons, Putin told a meeting of the Council for Civil Society Development and Human Rights on Tuesday, according to Russian state media, seemingly trying to downplay concerns about nuclear war as the Ukraine war escalates.
“In general, what we need now is not to improve nuclear weapons doctrine, but to improve ”Oreshnik”,” Putin said. “A sufficient number of these advanced systems virtually leads to the fact that there is no need to use nuclear weapons.”