Russia’s nuclear-capable Oreshnik missiles have entered lively service, Moscow says | EUROtoday

Russia’s nuclear-capable Oreshnik missile system has entered lively service, Russia’s Ministry of Defense mentioned Tuesday, as negotiators proceed to seek for a breakthrough in peace talks to finish Moscow’s struggle in Ukraine.

Troops held a short ceremony to mark the event in neighboring Belarus the place the missiles have been deployed, the ministry mentioned. It didn’t say what number of missiles had been deployed or give every other particulars.

Russian President Vladimir Putin mentioned earlier in December that the Oreshnik would enter fight obligation this month. He made the assertion at a gathering with high Russian army officers, the place he warned that Moscow will search to increase its beneficial properties in Ukraine if Kyiv and its Western allies reject the Kremlin’s calls for in peace talks.

The announcement comes at a important time for Russia-Ukraine peace talks. U.S. President Donald Trump hosted Zelenskyy at his Florida resort Sunday and insisted that Kyiv and Moscow had been “closer than ever before” to a peace settlement.

However, negotiators are nonetheless trying to find a breakthrough on key points, together with whose forces withdraw from the place in Ukraine and the destiny of Ukraine’s Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear energy plant, one of many 10 largest on this planet. Trump famous that the monthslong U.S.-led negotiations might nonetheless collapse.

Putin has sought to painting himself as negotiating from a place of power as Ukrainian forces pressure to maintain again the larger Russian military.

At a gathering with senior army officers Monday, Putin emphasised the necessity to create army buffer zones alongside the Russian border. He additionally claimed that Russian troops had been advancing within the jap Donetsk area of Ukraine and urgent their offensive within the southern Zaporizhzhia area.

Moscow first used the Oreshnik, which is Russian for “hazelnut tree,” towards Ukraine in November 2024, when it fired the experimental weapon at a manufacturing unit in Dnipro that constructed missiles when Ukraine was a part of the Soviet Union.

Putin has praised the Oreshnik’s capabilities, saying that its a number of warheads, which plunge towards a goal at speeds as much as Mach 10, are resistant to being intercepted.

He warned the West that Moscow might use it towards Ukraine’s NATO allies who’ve allowed Kyiv to make use of their longer-range missiles to strike inside Russia.

Russia’s missile forces chief has additionally declared that the Oreshnik, which might carry typical or nuclear warheads, has a variety permitting it to succeed in all of Europe.

Intermediate-range missiles can fly between 500 to five,500 kilometers (310 to three,400 miles). Such weapons had been banned beneath a Soviet-era treaty that Washington and Moscow deserted in 2019.

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Follow AP’s protection of the struggle in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine