Overview
- Exiled opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya warns that Alexander Lukashenko is deepening Russia’s military footprint in Belarus and preparing to host Russian missiles.
- Lukashenko has said ten Oreshnik systems would be stationed in Belarus, according to recent reports.
- Recent commercial satellite imagery reportedly indicates possible Oreshnik units at a military site near Krychau in eastern Belarus.
- Russia’s defence ministry in December released footage claiming an Oreshnik system was put on combat duty at a Belarusian airbase.
- The Oreshnik is a mobile, intermediate-range hypersonic missile that can carry nuclear warheads but has been used with conventional payloads in Ukraine, and experts caution nuclear command would remain with Moscow.