No existing air defense system is capable of countering the Oreshnik missile complex because of its extremely high speed, and even the United States would not be able to prevent a strike, former head of the Combat Training Directorate of the Strategic Missile Forces, Colonel Nikolay Shabaltas, told TASS.

According to Shabaltas, the Oreshnik system has already been used twice during the special military operation. He described it as a strategic weapon, although it was equipped with conventional (non-nuclear) payloads in those instances.

He also stated that under the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START), Russia was required to notify the United States in advance about missile launches from the Kapustin Yar test range, including the time frame and target area, in order to avoid a retaliatory strike. However, Shabaltas argued that even with such notification, the United States would not have been able to do anything against Oreshnik due to its speed.

The mobile ground-based medium-range missile system Oreshnik was first used in November 2024, when a non-nuclear hypersonic strike targeted a military-industrial facility in Dnepropetrovsk.

The second use reportedly occurred in January of this year, when Russian forces, in response to an attack by Kiev on the residence of President Vladimir Putin, carried out a massive strike on critical infrastructure facilities in Ukraine, including with the use of Oreshnik.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said in 2024, one day after the first use of the system, that Russia has a stockpile of such missiles ready for deployment and that serial production has already been organized.