Belarus prepares to receive Oreshnik missiles from Russia

According to RT, citing a statement at a press conference on January 26, President Alexander Lukashenko said that the Oreshnik missile will be deployed near Smolensk, a Russian city located about 60 km east of the Belarusian border. However, Mr. Lukashenko did not rule out the possibility that it could be placed in another location later.

"We will have Oreshnik soon, probably within a few days. We have agreed with President Vladimir Putin that the upcoming system will be delivered to Belarus even earlier than to Russia," he said.

Oreshnik fragments reveal the truth about the age of the 'new' Russian missile

When asked to confirm the timeline for the weapons delivery, President Lukashenko admitted that there was no exact date yet. He also explained that the choice of deployment location would be based on the technical specifications of the missiles.

The Belarusian leader said that initially the country wanted to receive at least 10 Oreshnik missile systems, but a transfer on such a scale was difficult for economic reasons, especially when Russia also needed to deploy Oreshniks. "One Oreshnik is enough to protect Belarus," Mr. Lukashenko added.

Diagram showing the process of launching and dropping warheads onto the target of the Oreshnik missile

The Oreshnik missile was first used by Russia in a raid on the city of Dnipro, central Ukraine on November 21, 2024, in response to Kyiv launching long-range ATACMS and Storm Shadow missiles supplied by the West deep into Moscow territory.

Russian President Vladimir Putin asserted that no Western air defense system could intercept the Oreshnik. Ukrainian military commander Oleksandr Syrsky also admitted on January 19 that his country did not possess weapons capable of intercepting the missile.

In another development, Mr. Lukashenko won an overwhelming majority of votes in the Belarusian presidential election, according to Reuters. According to preliminary results broadcast on Belarusian state television on January 26, President Lukashenko is clearly dominant with nearly 88% of the votes in the country's presidential election. This sign shows that Mr. Lukashenko (70 years old), who has led Belarus since 1994, is likely to win a seventh five-year presidential term.

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko votes in the presidential election in Minsk on January 26, 2025.

Immediately after the preliminary election results, the European Union (EU) rejected the legitimacy of the Belarusian election and threatened to impose new sanctions on the Eastern European country.

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/belarus-chuan-bi-nhan-ten-lua-oreshnik-tu-nga-185250127082221316.htm