MOSCOW: Russia could deploy its newly developed hypersonic Oreshnik missiles in Belarus next year as it begins to ramp up their production, President Vladimir Putin said on Friday.

Putin unveiled the nuclear-capable weapon last month after using it to strike the city of Dnipro in central Ukraine, sharply escalating tensions in the almost three-year-long conflict.

“As for the possibility of deploying, to put it bluntly, such formidable weapons as Oreshnik on Belarusian territory... it will become possible, I think, in the second half of next year,” Putin said in a televised meeting with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko in Minsk.

He said this would happen as “serial production” of the missile is “ramped up in Russia”.

Russia had already deployed tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus last year.

Experts believe the new missile flies at 10 times the speed of sound and may be able to strike targets up to 5,500 kilometres away. Moscow is Belarus’s closest ally, with the two countries strengthening their military cooperation throughout the Kremlin’s offensive in Ukraine.

Tactical nuclear weapons, designed for use on the battlefield, are smaller than the strategic nuclear weapons used to wipe out whole cities, but are still extremely destructive.

Published in Dawn, December 7th, 2024