threatened to retaliate<\/a> against Ukraine after alleging that nearly 100 drones had targeted the home. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has rejected Russia\u2019s claim.<\/p>\nAnalysts note that stationing the Oreshnik missiles in Belarus could shorten the time for Russian nuclear weapons to reach European targets.<\/p>\n
![\"En](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/ap_6954b201f253a-1767158274.jpg\")
This handout footage released by the Russian Defence Ministry press service shows the alleged deployment of a Russian Oreshnik hypersonic, a nuclear-capable missile system, for combat duty at an undisclosed location in Belarus [Russian Defence Ministry via AP]Nuclear deterrence strategy<\/p>\n
Western analysts see the move as a signal of Moscow\u2019s reliance on nuclear deterrence to discourage NATO support for Ukraine.<\/p>\n
Two US researchers told the Reuters news agency that the video confirmed earlier satellite-based identification of the discussed Krichev-6 airbase as the missile\u2019s likely location. Jeffrey Lewis of the Middlebury Institute and Decker Eveleth of CNA research and analysis organisation in Virginia said a building in the video matches an image captured by the Planet Labs commercial satellite company in November. They credited Russian military blogger Dmitry Kornev with first connecting the video to satellite imagery and posting the results on X.<\/p>\n
Although the footage did not reveal the exact location, it showed mobile launchers navigating forest roads, crews camouflaging the systems, and a senior Russian officer declaring that the missiles were officially on combat duty. Training and reconnaissance routines were shown as light snow fell.<\/p>\n
Moscow tested a conventionally armed Oreshnik \u2013 Russian for \u201chazel tree\u201d \u2013 against a target in Ukraine in November 2024. Putin has stated that even with a conventional warhead, the missile\u2019s destructive capacity rivals that of nuclear weapons. With a reported range of up to 5,500km (3,418 miles), the system could theoretically strike across Europe or the western United States.<\/p>\n
Scepticism from the West<\/p>\n
Some Western officials question the missile\u2019s practical effect on the battlefield. A US source said in December 2024 that the Oreshnik is not considered a game-changer.<\/p>\n
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, a close ally of Putin who has engaged with US President Donald Trump\u2019s administration, had previously confirmed the missile installation. He said no more than a dozen Oreshniks would be deployed, a move described by his defence minister as a response to what they called aggressive Western actions.<\/p>\n
While Lukashenko allowed Russian forces to launch operations into Ukraine from Belarus in 2022, Belarusian troops have not been sent to fight alongside Russian units.<\/p>\n
European response<\/p>\n
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz addressed Moscow\u2019s military posture in an annual New Year\u2019s speech.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are seeing more and more clearly that Russia\u2019s aggression was and is part of a plan targeted against the whole of Europe,\u201d he said, noting daily threats of sabotage, espionage, and cyberattacks.<\/p>\n
Merz also touched on Europe\u2019s need to act independently amid a more uncertain US partnership under Trump.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor us Europeans, this means that we must defend and assert our interests much more strongly by ourselves,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He added: \u201cThis can be a decisive year for our country and for Europe. It can be a year in which Germany and Europe, with new strength, reconnect with decades of peace, freedom and prosperity.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Moscow has positioned nuclear-capable hypersonic missiles in Belarus, drawing Western scrutiny as tensions rise in the war in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":664425,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7654],"tags":[1111,6178,2000,299,1824,2597,2821,12,8041,332,7661,657],"class_list":{"0":"post-664424","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ukraine","8":"tag-belarus","9":"tag-conflict","10":"tag-eu","11":"tag-europe","12":"tag-germany","13":"tag-military","14":"tag-nato","15":"tag-news","16":"tag-nuclear-weapons","17":"tag-russia","18":"tag-russia-ukraine-war","19":"tag-ukraine"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115813578564468031","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/664424","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=664424"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/664424\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/664425"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=664424"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=664424"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=664424"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}