Zelenskyy: Russia completes transfer of Oreshnik to Belarus, but there are still no Western sanctions
The RS-26 "Rubezh" missile, an experimental version of which is the "Oreshnik" (Illustrative photo: occupiers' resource)

Russia is completing the transfer of Oreshnik to Belarus – these medium-range ballistic missiles pose a threat to Europe, but partners have not yet imposed sanctions on their production. This was stated by president Volodymyr Zelenskyy during press conferences with a Polish colleague, Karol Nawrocki, in Warsaw.

"The relocation of Oreshnik to Belarus is nearing completion. We understand where it will be, where it will be located. We are passing this information on to our partners. I think our partners can assess this threat themselves and understand how to respond to it," the Ukrainian leader said.

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Zelenskyy emphasized that Ukraine had previously informed Europe and the United States that Russia would deploy Oreshnik on Belarusian territory, and that Kyiv was showing its partners the range that the system would be able to operate.

"This is a threat to many European countries, including Poland, Germany and others [...] We showed them this. "It is impossible to shoot down Oreshnik with drones today. They [the Russians] used Oreshniks on the territory of Ukraine. We understand how to deal with this," the president added.

REFERENCE.
As Ukrainian military intelligence noted to LIGA.net, the Oreshnik has a range of up to 5500 kilometers and a speed of more than 5 strokes or 6000 km/h (read more here).

He also said that Ukraine has asked its partners to impose sanctions on companies (located both in Europe and on other continents) that sell components that fit the Oreshnik through third countries.

"Without these components, Russia simply cannot develop the production of Oreshnik. To be honest, I don't see any reason for these sanctions so far. We believe that Russia will continue to produce Oreshnik. Thank God, it is not yet able to produce a lot of it, no matter what accusations it makes. We understand the number of them [such weapons produced], but nevertheless, they [the Russians] are doing it for a reason," Zelensky said.

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The president noted that he had a "fairly logical question": if the United States and other partners of Ukraine are making a lot of diplomatic efforts to end the war, can they also put pressure on Moscow not to deploy such weapons closer to Europe, to the borders with Poland.

"I think we need to do this. Otherwise, it is difficult to understand why [if] Russia attacks American air defense systems on the territory of Ukraine, why then the partners do not draw conclusions about threats on the territory of Belarus, which will be led by the Russian Federation?" the head of state asked.

In this context, he recalled that on the first night of the full-scale Russian invasion, "the missiles that killed our people were flying into the territory of our state [including] from Belarus."

Former Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko said that Oreshnik has allegedly been in Belarus since December 17 and is on combat duty.

In late October, the Main Intelligence Directorate confirmed LIGA.net that Moscow and Minsk have an agreement to deploy Oreshnik in Belarus.

Intelligence indicated that this would happen in the following ways in the Mogilev region by the end of 2025.

In the same month, the head of the Security Service of Ukraine Vasyl Malyuk stated that in the summer of 2023, Ukrainian defenders destroyed one Oreshnik on the territory of Russia.

  • In November 2024, the occupiers used the Oreshnik to strike at the Dnipro, launching a missile from the Astrakhan region.
  • In July 2025, Ukrainian intelligence reported LIGA.net that there was no confirmed evidence that the occupiers tried to use Oreshnik against Ukraine after the attack on the Dnipro, and there was no information about further exercises and tests of this weapon.