Russia: Nuclear Missiles Acti 12/30 06:28

   Russia's nuclear-capable Oreshnik missile system has entered active service 
in Belarus, Russia's Defense Ministry said Tuesday.

   (AP) -- Russia's nuclear-capable Oreshnik missile system has entered active 
service in Belarus, Russia's Defense Ministry said Tuesday, as the U.S. efforts 
to broker a deal to end the nearly four-year war in Ukraine have entered a 
pivotal stage.

   The ministry released a video showing combat vehicles that are part of the 
mobile intermediate range ballistic missile system driving across a forest as 
part of combat training. The ministry's announcement followed a statement from 
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, who said earlier this month that the 
Oreshnik had arrived in the country. Lukashenko said that up to 10 such missile 
systems will be stationed in Belarus.

   Russian President Vladimir Putin said earlier this month that the Oreshnik 
would enter combat duty before the year's end. He made the statement at a 
meeting with top Russian military officers, where he warned that Moscow will 
seek to extend its gains in Ukraine if Kyiv and its Western allies reject the 
Kremlin's demands in peace talks.

   The announcement comes at a critical time for Russia-Ukraine peace talks. 
U.S. President Donald Trump hosted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at 
his Florida resort Sunday and insisted that Kyiv and Moscow were "closer than 
ever before" to a peace settlement.

   However, Moscow and Kyiv remain deeply divided on key issues, including 
whose forces withdraw from where in Ukraine and the fate of Ukraine's 
Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, one of the 10 biggest in the 
world. Trump noted that the monthslong U.S.-led negotiations could still 
collapse.

   Putin has sought to portray himself as negotiating from a position of 
strength as Ukrainian forces strain to keep back the bigger Russian army.

   Russia first tested a conventionally armed version of the Oreshnik -- 
Russian for hazelnut tree -- to strike a Ukrainian factory in November 2024. 
Putin has bragged that Oreshnik's multiple warheads plunge at speeds of up to 
Mach 10 and can't be intercepted, and that several of them used in a 
conventional strike could be as devastating as a nuclear attack.

   The Russian leader has warned the West that Russia could use the Oreshnik 
next against allies of Kyiv that allowed it to strike inside Russia with their 
longer-range missiles.

   The Belarusian Defense Ministry said Tuesday that the Oreshnik has a range 
of up to 5,000 kilometers (3,100 miles).

   Russian state media boasted that it would take the missile only 11 minutes 
to reach an air base in Poland and 17 minutes to reach NATO headquarters in 
Brussels. There's no way to know whether it's carrying a nuclear or a 
conventional warhead before it hits the target.

   Intermediate-range missiles can fly between 500 to 5,500 kilometers (310 to 
3,400 miles). Such weapons were banned under a Soviet-era treaty that 
Washington and Moscow abandoned in 2019.

   Russia previously has deployed tactical nuclear weapons to the territory of 
its Belarus, whose territory it used to launch a full-scale invasion of Ukraine 
in February 2022. Lukashenko has said that his country has several dozen 
Russian tactical nuclear weapons.

   While signing a security pact with Lukashenko in December 2024, Putin said 
that even with Russia controlling the Oreshniks, Moscow would allow Minsk to 
select the targets. He noted that if the missiles are used against targets 
closer to Belarus, they could carry a significantly heavier payload.

   In 2024, the Kremlin released a revised nuclear doctrine, noting that any 
nation's conventional attack on Russia that is supported by a nuclear power 
will be considered a joint attack on his country. The threat was clearly aimed 
at discouraging the West from allowing Ukraine to strike Russia with 
longer-range weapons and appears to significantly lower the threshold for the 
possible use of Russia's nuclear arsenal.

   The revised Russian doctrine also placed Belarus under the Russian nuclear 
umbrella.

   Lukashenko has ruled the nation of 9.5 million with an iron fist for more 
than three decades. His government has been repeatedly sanctioned by the West 
for its crackdown on human rights and for allowing Moscow to use its territory 
for the invasion of Ukraine. Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana 
Tsikhanouskaya has said that the deployment of Oreshnik to Belarus deepens the 
country's military and political dependence on Russia.