Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko asked Russian President Vladimir Putin on Dec. 6 to deploy Oreshnik missile systems in Belarus, a weapon Russia recently used to strike Ukraine, Russian state-controlled news agency RIA Novosti reported.
Lukashenko made the request during the signing ceremony of new agreements between Russia and Belarus, including a treaty on security guarantees under the so-called "Union State" and a deal to establish a unified electricity market.
Putin called the security guarantees treaty "fundamental" and said it would involve "all available forces and means."
In his remarks, Lukashenko referenced the Nov. 21 launch of the Oreshnik, Russia's new intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM), against the Ukrainian city of Dnipro.
“This had a certain impact on our former partners and now rivals,” Lukashenko said. “Do not take this as some kind of audacity, but I want to publicly ask you to deploy new weapons systems, especially the Oreshnik, on Belarusian territory.”
Lukashenko added that Belarus's military and political leadership would decide the targets for these weapons and claimed to have already identified locations for the missile systems.
Putin responded that such a deployment was "possible" and said the missiles could be supplied to Belarus by the second half of 2025.
While Putin has claimed Russia has begun mass production of the Oreshnik, a U.S. official told The Kyiv Independent that Moscow likely possesses "only a handful" of these experimental missiles.
The Oreshnik strike against Ukraine followed Kyiv's first successful use of U.S.-supplied ATACMS missiles on a military target in Russia. Moscow later acknowledged additional ATACMS strikes on targets in Kursk and Bryansk oblasts.
Chris York
(Updated: )
