During a meeting with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that deployment sites for the new ‘Oreshnik’ missile system in Belarus have already been selected, and serial production of the weapon is now in progress.

The ‘Oreshnik’ is a non-nuclear strategic missile derived from the RS-26 intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM). It was recently used in a retaliatory strike on Ukraine, following Ukrainian attacks on long-range early warning radar systems inside Russian territory.