Putin praises Oreshnik missile, challenging US THAAD defense system

At his year-end press conference on December 19, Russian President Vladimir Putin was asked about the new experimental Oreshnik missile that the Russian military used in its attack on eastern Ukraine last month.

“Oreshnik is a very new and advanced weapon,” Putin praised, acknowledging claims by Western experts that the intercontinental missile was based on earlier Soviet developments.

Responding to claims that the Oreshnik missile could be intercepted by Western air defense systems, the Russian leader said: "Let the United States transfer the THAAD ballistic missile defense system to Ukraine. Let's conduct this test, a technological duel, and see what happens. I think both we and they will see interesting results."

Russia first fired Oreshnik missiles at the Ukrainian city of Dnipro on November 21, a move that Mr. Putin saw as a response to Ukraine's use of long-range American ATACM missiles and British Storm Shadow missiles to attack Russian territory with Western permission.

From available information, military experts believe that Oreshnik has an effective range of more than 5,500 km and it is still classified as a medium-range ballistic missile.

Regarding the Oreshnik's attack capabilities, the system can be deployed anywhere if it uses a mobile launcher based on the RS-26 mobile intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) platform.

According to the Military Chronicle, with the use of solid-fuel propulsion, Oreshnik only takes 19 minutes to reach the UK, 11 minutes to reach Germany and 8 minutes to reach Poland. The Oreshnik missile is likely to be equipped with 3 to 6 nuclear or conventional warheads.

Russian President Putin said that current Western air defense systems cannot intercept the Oreshnik missile and that the weapon can attack targets at a speed of Mach 10 - about 12,300 km/h.

On December 17, Mr. Putin said that Russia will soon mass produce the Oreshnik and could deploy this missile on the territory of ally Belarus in the second half of 2025.