Putin agrees to Lukashenko’s request to deploy Oreshnik missiles on Belarusian territory

In a meeting in Minsk on Friday, Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko asked Vladimir Putin to deploy Russia’s recently unveiled Oreshnik missile system on Belarusian territory.

“Recently, Russia successfully launched the Oreshnik. This has had a certain impact on our former partners, now competitors. Please don’t take this as impudence, but I want to publicly ask for new weapons systems, particularly the Oreshnik, to be stationed on Belarusian territory,” Lukashenko said.

Putin responded that such a deployment was “possible,” according to a Belarusian pro-government Telegram channel.

“I believe deploying complexes like the Oreshnik in Belarus is possible,” the channel quoted Putin as saying. He reportedly added that deployment could begin in the second half of 2025, as Russian authorities aim to establish mass production of the system by then.

At the same meeting, Putin and Lukashenko signed a treaty on security guarantees between Russia and Belarus. Putin said the agreement sets out mutual commitments on defense and the protection of both nations’ sovereignty, independence, and constitutional order. He stressed that “all available forces and resources” could be used to achieve these goals, adding that this “includes Russian tactical nuclear weapons.”