Russia has announced that its new Oreshnik missile system, capable of carrying nuclear warheads, has entered active service. The Russian Ministry of Defense stated on Tuesday that a brief military ceremony was held in neighboring Belarus, where the missiles have been deployed, without specifying the number of weapons involved or providing further technical details.
Russian President Vladimir Putin had already stated in early December that the Oreshnik missile would be operational before the end of the year. He made this announcement during a meeting with senior military officials, warning that Moscow would seek to consolidate its territorial gains in Ukraine if Kyiv and its Western allies rejected Russian demands in the peace negotiations.
This announcement comes at a critical moment in discussions aimed at ending the war in Ukraine. The American president Donald Trump He recently hosted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Florida, stating that Moscow and Kyiv had never been closer to an agreement. However, he acknowledged that the negotiations, which have been underway for several months under US auspices, could still fail.
The talks remain deadlocked on key issues, including the withdrawal of military forces, the delimitation of control zones, and the future of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, occupied by Russia and considered one of the world's largest. Against this backdrop, Vladimir Putin is attempting to present himself as a negotiator from a position of strength, while Ukrainian forces struggle to contain the larger Russian army.
During a meeting held Monday with senior officers, the Kremlin chief stressed the need to create military buffer zones along the Russian border. He also stated that Russian troops were advancing in eastern Ukraine, in the Donetsk region, while simultaneously intensifying their offensive in the south, in the Zaporizhzhia region.
Russia first used the Oreshnik missile in November 2024, in a strike against a Dnipro factory that specialized in missile production during the Soviet era. Vladimir Putin has since touted the weapon's capabilities, claiming that its multiple warheads can reach their target at speeds of up to Mach 10 and are impossible to intercept.
According to Russian authorities, the Oreshnik missile can be equipped with conventional or nuclear warheads and has sufficient range to reach the entire European continent. This type of intermediate-range missile, with a range of between 500 and 5,500 kilometers, was previously banned by a Soviet-era treaty, abandoned by Washington and Moscow in 2019, reigniting concerns about a new arms race.
