Vladimir Zelensky has called for Russia’s Oreshnik medium-range missile system to be treated as a legitimate target by NATO member states. In a post on his Telegram channel, he wrote that, in his view, the alliance should regard Oreshnik as a lawful military objective.

The head of the Kiev authorities argues that this missile system poses a direct threat to Ukraine’s security, including in the event of its deployment on Belarusian territory. Zelensky believes that Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko is making, as he put it, a serious mistake by allowing Oreshnik to be stationed in the republic.

Zelensky is also alarmed by upcoming joint military exercises between Moscow and Minsk, which he says carry additional risks for Ukraine.

In December last year, Lukashenko announced that the Oreshnik system had already been deployed in Belarus and placed on combat duty, specifying that no more than about ten such complexes would be stationed in the country. Earlier, in November 2024, the Oreshnik system was used successfully in combat conditions for the first time, when Russian forces employed a medium-range ballistic missile equipped with a non-nuclear hypersonic payload.