MOSCOW — In a bold escalation with significant strategic implications, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced during a sit-down with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko that deployment sites for Russia’s new ‘Oreshnik’ intermediate-range ballistic missiles (IRBMs) have already been selected within Belarus — and that mass production has begun.

“The locations for deployment in Belarus have already been chosen, and serial production is now underway,” Putin confirmed.

The ‘Oreshnik’, a non-nuclear strategic weapon derived from the RS-26 IRBM platform, was recently used in a signal strike in Ukraine — a move Moscow claims was in retaliation for Kyiv’s successful targeting of Russia’s long-range early warning radar installations.

This development marks a deepening of Belarus-Russia military integration, placing NATO on high alert and potentially reshaping the security architecture of Eastern Europe. Experts say the positioning of such weapons so close to NATO borders could dramatically shorten reaction times and further destabilize the region.