Nuclear arms and Oreshnik: Belarus spills details on joint Zapad-2025 drills with Russia
Illustrative photo: Belarus and Russia to hold military exercises (t me modmilby)
Belarus says it wants to practice planning for the use of nuclear weapons and the Oreshnik complex in joint exercises with Russia. The exercise will be held in September 2025, reports Belta.
According to Belarusian Defense Minister Viktor Khrenin, the exercises will practice planning the use of nuclear weapons.
According to him, this is a key element of strategic deterrence, as the Belarusian regime closely monitors the situation on the western and northern borders and cannot "indifferently observe the increased military presence and activity."
The defense minister also said that during the exercises, the Belarusian military, together with the Russians, would practice the use of the Oreshnik missile system.
Zapad 2025 exercise
Yesterday, it became known that the joint military exercise Zapad 2025 between Russia and Belarus will take place from September 12 to 16, 2025. More than 13,000 military personnel are expected to take part in the maneuvers.
According to the spokesperson for the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine, Andrii Demchenko, the first Russian units have already arrived in Belarus to participate in the exercises.
The head of Ukraine's Center for Countering Disinformation, Andriy Kovalenko, warned that the Russians would exploit information about the exercises.
About the Oreshnik missile
The Oreshnik intermediate-range ballistic missile is a surface-to-surface missile and is reportedly capable of carrying both nuclear and conventional warheads. It is allegedly a modernized version of the RS-26 Rubezh missile.
Russia used the Oreshnik missile for the first time on November 21, 2024, during a strike on Dnipro. After the attack, the Kremlin head confirmed the combat use of the new weapon.
Since then, Russian politicians and propaganda media have regularly used this missile as a tool of intimidation, threatening to use it again.
Putin recently once again boasted of the mass production of the Oreshnik.
At a meeting with journalists, the Kremlin leader said that Russia had allegedly produced the first serial sample of the new Oreshnik missile system and that it had already been handed over to the army. But he is silent on the facts of the unsuccessful tests of this system.
