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By Shane Croucher
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Russian President Vladimir Putin said a medium-range system armed with Moscow's latest Oreshnik hypersonic missiles would be placed on combat duty by the end of the year, after the weapon was used for the first time in the war on Ukraine back in November 2024.
Putin was speaking at a high-level Defense Ministry meeting in Moscow on Tuesday. As Russia seeks to demonstrate its military dominance over Ukraine, Moscow is pressuring Kyiv to give in to its demands for peace, and its technological advances in weaponry, as it tries to impose itself at the top table of powers in an emerging multipolar world order.
“The high level of training of units and formations, and their ability to carry out the most complex tasks, is also confirmed during regularly conducted exercises, including those involving our foreign allies and partners, to whom we are passing on the experience gained during the special military operation," Putin said, originally in Russian, state news agency TASS reported.
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The Russian leader also said tests of Russia's new nuclear-powered Burevestnik strategic cruise missile had been successful, along with the unmanned underwater vehicle, Poseidon, also nuclear-powered and nuclear-capable. The Kremlin says the Burevestnik has an unlimited range.
"Thanks to the use of a nuclear power plant, these systems will remain unique and one of a kind for a long time; they will ensure strategic parity, security, and Russia’s global position for decades to come," Putin said. "We will continue working on these systems—we will further refine and improve them—but they already exist."
Touting the weapons is also a clear warning to European allies, who say Russia is preparing for a continental war within the next few years through its heavy rearmament over the course of its invasion of Ukraine. They also accuse Russia of already waging hybrid warfare against them, through means such as sabotage, cyberattacks, and disinformation campaigns.
Moscow denies wanting war with Europe or NATO, and says Western allies are the ones seeking conflict, citing their own rapid rearmament and ongoing military assistance to Ukraine. Putin called accusations that the Kremlin wants war with Europe "hysteria" and a "lie."
Russia's Oreshnik, Burevestnik, and Poseidon Weapons
Back in November 2024, Putin confirmed that the Oreshnik—"the hazel"—had been used for the first time in an attack on Dnipro, Ukraine.
In its analysis at the time, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), a nonprofit research group and think tank, identified the Oreshnik as "an experimental medium-range ballistic missile with reentry vehicles—likely a modified RS-26 'Rubezh' intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM)" fired from Astrakhan Oblast into central Ukraine.
The Rubezh missile, which was never officially entered into service and is classed as under development, can carry a nuclear or conventional payload containing the warheads, or have multiple independently targetable reentry vehicles that transport explosives to numerous targets.
The Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation reported that a medium-range missile can travel 620 miles to 1,860 miles, though Russian sources claimed that the Oreshnik has a range of up to 3,100 miles.
The Burevestnik, also known by its NATO moniker, SSC-X-9 Skyfall, is a ground-launched, nuclear-powered cruise missile. It was first unveiled by Putin in March 2018 with a host of other next-generation weapons, including the so-called "doomsday device" Poseidon, a nuclear-powered, nuclear-tipped torpedo.
Russia says the Burevestnik has a range long enough to strike the U.S. and is able to dodge Western air defenses.
Valery Gerasimov, Russia's most senior general, told Putin the Burevestnik had covered roughly 14,000 kilometers, or 8,700 miles, in a 15-hour test flight on October 21, 2025. "This is not the limit," Gerasimov, the chief of the general staff of Russia's military, said in comments published by the Tass state news agency.
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