Putin warns Russia will launch hypersonic Oreshnik missiles from Belarus next year
Russia could launch its hypersonic missiles from Belarus next year, Vladimir Putin has claimed in a chilling warning to the West.
The Russian president said that it was "feasible" for the intermedia-range ballistic missiles to be launched from the territory of its ally, which is directly north of Ukraine and also borders Poland, Latvia and Lithuania - all three of which are EU and NATO members.
The Oreshnik missile that Russia fired in November at the Ukrainian city of Dnipro was launched from a range in the Astrakhan region, in the south-west of the country - several hundreds of miles further east than Belarus.
Speaking at a summit in Minsk with Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko, Mr Putin said: "As for the possibility of deploying such, frankly speaking, formidable weapons as the Oreshnik on the territory of Belarus: since we have today signed an agreement on security guarantees using all available forces and means, I consider the deployment of such systems as the Oreshnik on the territory of the Republic of Belarus to be feasible.
He added: "I think this will become possible in the second half of next year, as serial production of these systems in Russia increases and as these missile systems enter service with the Russian strategic forces."
Russia has claimed that the Oreshnik ’hazel tree’ missile is incapable of being intercepted, although some military experts have cast doubt on this, citing Israeli and American air defence systems.
Putin said in November that the missile strikes were a response to Ukraine using Western long-range missiles on Russian territory for the first time earlier this month.
Some commentators dispute this, arguing that the attacks would have been planned for longer.
He said: "Of course, we will respond to the ongoing strikes on Russian territory with long-range Western-made missiles, as has already been said, including by possibly continuing to test the Oreshnik in combat conditions.
"At present, the Ministry of Defence and the General Staff are selecting targets to hit on Ukrainian territory. These could be military facilities, defence and industrial enterprises, or decision-making centres in Kyiv."
Putin also warned that Russia could use the new missile to strike military facilities of Kyiv’s Western allies that allow Ukraine to use their weapons for attacks on Russian territory.
It comes as Russia’s top diplomat said that Moscow does not want a war with the United States but will use "all means" to defend its interests.
Speaking with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson, Sergei Lavrov argued that while Russia and the US are officially not at war, Washington’s permission for Ukraine to use American longer-range missiles for strikes on Russian territory marked a dangerous escalation.
"It is obvious that the Ukrainians would not be able to do what they’re doing with long-range modern weapons without direct participation of the American servicemen. And this is dangerous, no doubt about this," he said, adding that the Western belief that Russia’s red lines could be "moved again and again" is "a very serious mistake".
Mr Lavrov, the world’s longest-serving foreign minister who has been in the job for 20 years, said that a recent Russian strike on Ukraine with a new hypersonic intermediate range ballistic missile called Oreshnik was a signal to the West that Russia is prepared to use all means to achieve its goals in Ukraine.
"The message which we wanted to send by testing in real action this hypersonic system is that we will be ready to do anything to defend our legitimate interests," he said.
"The United States, and the allies of the United States who also provide these long-range weapons to the Kyiv regime, they must understand that we would be ready to use any means not to allow them to succeed in what they call strategic defeat of Russia."
Mr Lavrov said Russia had issued a warning to the US about the Oreshnik launch 30 minutes before it happened using an automated system used to exchange such advance notices.
He said that "we hate even to think about war with the United States, which will take nuclear character", but he warned that any potential exchange of nuclear strikes between Russia and Nato allies in Europe will inevitably escalate into a wider conflict in which the US will be targeted.
"To speak about limited exchange of nuclear strikes is an invitation to disaster, which we don’t want to have," Mr Lavrov said.
Speaking about the Kremlin conditions for a potential peace deal, he reaffirmed Mr Putin’s demand that Ukraine should pull back its forces from the four regions that Russia annexed in September 2022 and renounce its bid to join Nato.
He added that any peace agreement must secure the rights of Russian speakers in Ukraine.
Asked about his view of Donald Trump, Mr Lavrov described him as "a very strong person, a person who wants results, who doesn’t like procrastination on anything."
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