It is a latest generation weapon, hypersonic and capable of carrying a nuclear charge. The Russian Orechnik ballistic missile is currently deployed in eastern Belarus, an ally of Vladimir Putin’s Russia. The Russian president announced last August the mass production of the Orechnik and his intention to deploy this latest generation weapon to his neighbor in 2025.
In mid-December, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko confirmed the presence of the missile on his territory. “He is taking combat duty,” he added. However, he did not reveal the location of the arsenal, even though Belarus borders three European countries. Belarusian territory had already been used by Moscow to launch its offensive against Ukraine in 2022.
A rail yard and camouflage
Two American researchers, whose work the Reuters agency reports, have identified using satellite images a Belarusian site which could “possibly” host Orechnik missiles. This is the former Krichev air base, located 307 kilometers east of the Belarusian capital, Minsk, and 478 kilometers from Moscow. Jeffrey Lewis, of the Middlebury Institute of International Studies, and Decker Eveleth, of the research and analysis organization CNA, used satellite images and dissected the Belarusian president’s statements to identify the former Soviet base, they explain in a blog post. In particular, they identified a hasty construction last August which bears the characteristics of a Russian strategic missile base.
The telltale clue is the construction of a marshalling yard, indicating that missiles and their mobile launchers can be transported by train. One of the places on the site has also been covered with earth, which could suggest camouflage. Enough to be “90%” sure of the presence of Orechnik missile launchers at this location, which matches information from American intelligence, according to Reuters, which cites an anonymous source. The agency contacted the Russian embassy in Moscow, which did not immediately comment, as well as the Belarusian embassy, which declined to comment. The White House also did not respond to journalists, and the CIA, the American intelligence services, did not wish to comment.
A range of 5,500 kilometers
The Russian Orechnik missile – whose name means “hazel tree” in Russian – is an intermediate-range weapon, which can hit targets between 3,000 and 5,500 kilometers away. Its speed exceeds Mach 10, or ten times the speed of sound, which makes it impossible to intercept, according to Vladimir Putin. It can also carry several warheads, nuclear or conventional, and has particularly worried Westerners since its first use in November 2024. Russia had used the Orechnik without a nuclear charge to strike a military factory in the city of Dnipro, in central Ukraine.
Last August, Belarus said it was training to deploy Orechnik missiles during military exercises with Russia. Its president subsequently added that his country could host up to ten of these missiles. But according to American researchers Eveleth and Lewis, the site they identified could only accommodate three launchers. The other missiles could therefore be stationed elsewhere in the country.
A political signal more than military
According to researchers interviewed by Reuters, Russia’s military escalation reflects its desire to use the nuclear threat to prevent NATO from providing kyiv with weapons capable of striking Russia. A political message rather than a military one: the deployment of the Orechnik in Belarus does not bring any additional military advantage to Moscow. Other sites, located in Russia, would be closer to Paris and London, notes Jeffrey Lewis on his blog.
The deployment of the Orechnik missiles could also be a reaction to the stationing, planned for 2026, of American conventional hypersonic missiles in Germany. Finally, it is a political message sent to Belarus, which seeks the protection of its ally.
The country’s announcement of the presence of such weapons on its soil comes in any case a few weeks before the expiration of the New Start nuclear disarmament treaty, signed in 2010 between Washington and Moscow. It provides for control and limitation of the nuclear weapons of both parties. Russia had suspended its participation in 2023, before proposing in September 2025 to extend it by one year.
