Oreshnik Missile: Range, Speed and Where It Can Strike

The Oreshnik is a solid-fuel ballistic missile that carries several warheads and is fired from a wheeled launcher. Putin named it in a televised address on November 21, 2024, hours after it struck the city of Dnipro. “Oreshnik” means hazel tree in Russian.

The Pentagon said the same day that the missile was an experimental intermediate-range ballistic missile based on the RS-26 Rubezh, an intercontinental missile Russia tested in the 2010s and then shelved. Removing a stage from the RS-26 would explain the shorter range. Russia notified the United States before the launch through its nuclear risk-reduction channel, the Pentagon confirmed.

The missile is built to carry nuclear warheads. The ones fired at Ukraine did not. Ukrainian officials said the warheads in the Dnipro and Lviv strikes carried no explosive charge, and the damage at the targets was limited. Belarus’s defence minister has described it as a weapon for both nuclear and conventional strikes.

The Oreshnik’s range is estimated at 3,500 to 5,500 km, which places it in the intermediate class the old INF Treaty banned. That treaty prohibited Russian and American ground-launched missiles with ranges of 500 to 5,500 km until the United States withdrew on August 2, 2019. Belarus’s defence minister, Viktor Khrenin, said in December 2025 that the system can hit targets up to 5,000 km away with nuclear or conventional warheads.

Distance from the launch site decides what is in reach. The launchers in Belarus are believed to sit in the east of the country, near the Russian border. From there, Warsaw is about 735 km away, Berlin about 1,230 km, Paris about 2,100 km and London about 2,150 km. Madrid is about 3,000 km away, and Lisbon, at about 3,500 km, sits at the edge of the lowest estimate. Western Europe was already within reach from Russia itself; Belarus cuts the flight time.

The two strikes with known launch points were far shorter than the maximum. Both missiles flew from the Kapustin Yar test range in southern Russia: about 800 km to Dnipro in November 2024 and about 1,500 km to Lviv in January 2026.

Putin says the Oreshnik’s warheads fall at Mach 10, or 2.5 to 3 km per second. Ukraine’s Air Force gave a matching figure for the strike on the Lviv region late on January 8, 2026: it tracked the incoming missile at about 13,000 km per hour on a ballistic path.

Fast as that is, it is normal for the class. The warheads of almost every long-range ballistic missile fall back through the atmosphere faster than Mach 5, which is why Russia calls the Oreshnik hypersonic. What makes it harder to stop is the number of warheads. Video of the Dnipro strike showed six clusters of glowing objects falling on the target, each splitting into smaller pieces, which is consistent with a missile that releases several warheads at once.

Putin says no air or missile defence in service can intercept it, and no interception has been reported in its three combat uses. The claim is unproven, but the defences Ukraine has were not built for a missile of this class.

Ukraine’s main shield against ballistic missiles is the Patriot, whose PAC-3 MSE interceptor is designed for shorter-range missiles that fall more slowly. The United States has approved a $2.1 billion sale of 500 PAC-3 MSE missiles to Ukraine. Missiles of the Oreshnik’s class are usually met higher up, outside the atmosphere, by interceptors such as the American SM-3 or the Israeli Arrow 3. Germany declared its first Arrow 3 battery, at Holzdorf air base south of Berlin, ready for limited operations on December 3, 2025. Our comparison of the S-400 and the Patriot explains how each layer works.

Russia has fired the Oreshnik at Ukraine three times, and each strike did limited damage.

The first, on November 21, 2024, hit the Pivdenmash missile and space plant, formerly Yuzhmash, in Dnipro. Putin called it a response to Ukraine’s use of American ATACMS and British Storm Shadow missiles inside Russia.

The second came late on January 8, 2026, against the Lviv region near Poland’s border. Russia’s Defence Ministry said it hit the Lviv State Aircraft Repair Plant and called the strike retaliation for an alleged drone attack on Putin’s residence, a claim Kyiv rejected. Ukraine’s Security Service later showed fragments it said came from an Oreshnik. The regional authorities reported no casualties.

The third, on May 24, 2026, was part of an overnight attack on Ukraine with hundreds of drones and missiles. Putin said two Oreshnik missiles were fired, one at the city of Bila Tserkva and one at what he called the perimeter of a fortified area in Donetsk. Ukraine’s Air Force confirmed only one launch, toward the Kyiv region. President Volodymyr Zelensky said the second missile came down in Russian-occupied Donetsk, which Ukraine reads as a failed launch. The Kyiv regional prosecutor’s office said the strike near Bila Tserkva damaged a garage cooperative and commercial buildings.

No official count exists, and Ukrainian intelligence estimates range from three or four missiles to as many as ten. Oleh Luhovskyi of Ukraine’s Foreign Intelligence Service said after the Lviv strike in January 2026 that Russia had no more than three or four. Ukraine’s Defence Intelligence put the stockpile at up to ten in April 2026. Ukrainian intelligence said in October 2025 that Russia planned to build up to six in 2026.

In Belarus, a Belarusian officer said the first battalion has three launchers. Alexander Lukashenko has said up to ten Oreshnik systems could eventually be based in his country. Russia keeps control of the missiles; Belarus provides the ground.

The Oreshnik is a solid-fuel, road-mobile intermediate-range ballistic missile. Its range is estimated at 3,500 to 5,500 km, and Belarus’s defence minister says 5,000 km. Putin says it flies at Mach 10, and Ukraine’s Air Force tracked one at about 13,000 km/h on January 8, 2026. The Pentagon said on November 21, 2024 that it was based on the RS-26 Rubezh. It has been used against Ukraine three times: Dnipro on November 21, 2024, the Lviv region on January 8-9, 2026, and Bila Tserkva on May 24, 2026. Russia’s Defence Ministry said on December 30, 2025 that the system was on combat duty in Belarus. From eastern Belarus, Berlin is about 1,230 km away and London about 2,150 km.