At an expanded meeting of the Russian Defence Ministry board, Defence Minister Andrey Belousov announced that the Oreshnik medium-range missile system would be placed on combat duty before the end of this year. He also said that the S-500 Prometey long- and medium-range surface-to-air missile system is already in service, providing air and missile defence for Russia.

Retired colonel and military analyst Mikhail Khodarenok argued that it was no coincidence Belousov placed such emphasis on air defence systems in his remarks. In his view, this priority stems directly from both the experience of the special military operation and the recent conflict between Iran and Israel, when more than 500 Iranian ballistic missiles were launched at Israeli cities and the country relied on layered missile defence systems to repel the strikes.

Khodarenok also recalled that Western politicians and military officials have been persistently talking about an allegedly inevitable Russian invasion of NATO countries. He insisted that, if a military confrontation does break out, the side responsible for triggering it would be the West.

Commenting on the role of the new systems, he stated that, in a European theatre of operations, Oreshnik would be capable of reaching any NATO command post, regardless of how deep it is concealed, while Prometey, as he put it, could «swat» any airborne command centre of the alliance. Khodarenok believes that these two Russian systems alone are able to exert a decisive influence on the course of hostilities.

In his assessment, a full-scale war on the western strategic axis involving nuclear weapons could put an end to Europe’s history altogether. In such a scenario, he argued, Oreshnik with special warhead configurations would certainly not be playing a secondary role.