Belarus limits deployment of Russian Oreshnik systems to around twelve

Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko has indicated that his country plans to host a limited number of Russian Oreshnik systems, estimating that their total would not exceed around a dozen.

Lukashenko made the comment during a conversation with Kremlin journalist Alexander Yunashev, Caliber.Az reports.

When asked how many of the Russian systems Belarus intends to deploy on its territory, the president responded succinctly: “A dozen at most.”

Lukashenko previously said at a ceremony marking Belarus’ Independence Day in July that he and Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed the system would be deployed by the end of the year.

The Oreshnik was first used in November 2024, when Moscow said it struck a plant in the Ukrainian city of Dnipro in response to Kyiv’s use of Western-supplied long-range weapons on Russian territory.

Minsk said in September that Russian and Belarusian forces practiced planning for the use of non-strategic nuclear weapons and the deployment of Oreshnik during the Zapad-2025 joint exercises held in the country.

In March 2023, Putin announced that Russia would deploy tactical nuclear weapons and complete the construction of a special storage facility in neighboring Belarus.

By Vafa Guliyeva