Belarusian ruler Alexander Lukashenko said he expects Russia to deploy its new Oreshnik intermediate range ballistic missile in his country very soon.
“We will get Oreshnik in the next few days,” Lukashenko said at a press conference on Sunday.
He said that an agreement had been reached with Russian President Vladimir Putin that the hypersonic missile would be delivered to Belarus before it was first stationed in Russia.
Lukashenko said Belarus wants to host the missiles in order to protect against new US medium-range missiles stationed in Europe.
There was no immediate confirmation of Lukashenko’s statements from Moscow.
Russia fired an Oreshnik missile at Ukraine’s industrial city of Dnipro last November.
A month later, Putin claimed that Western air-defence systems are incapable of intercepting the Oreshnik, which means hazel tree in Russia. He also said it could hit targets as far as away as Western Europe.
Western military analysts say that Oreshnik is capable of carrying a nuclear warhead.
Belarus’ President Alexander Lukashenko votes at a polling station in Minsk, during the Belarusian presidential election. -/Belarusian Presidency/dpa
