Missing the mark: Why Putin’s “wonder weapons” only make Russia less secure

According to expert assessments, the Oreshnik missile has limited combat benefits in a non‑nuclear configuration due to its high cost and low accuracy. Moreover, both launches were carried out from the Kapustin Yar test range (although the Russian Ministry of Defense claimed the strike on Lviv had been delivered from a mobile ground‑based system), meaning its use with a nuclear warhead is so far limited to fixed test sites. Mobile Oreshnik launchers still lack the infrastructure necessary for full deployment, suggesting that Russia’s recent announcement that it will be deployed to Belarus under a “combat-ready” status is little more than a political gesture.

Yet even the nominal deployment of the system on Belarusian territory creates a challenge to European security. While it remains unclear how much independence the authorities in Minsk might have when it comes to decisions about the system’s use, in December 2025 the Russian state news agency TASS published — and then retracted — a report saying that the Belarusian authorities could independently determine targets for the Oreshnik.

The Burevestnik: “A flying Chornobyl”

This past Oct. 26, on a visit to the command post of a military unit fighting in Ukraine, Putin received a report on the successful tests of the 9M730 Burevestnik missile (NATO classification: SSC‑X‑9 Skyfall) from Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov. According to their dialogue, the missile had traveled 14,000 kilometers and remained airborne for 15 hours. Putin made a point of asking whether this was the maximum result that could be expected for the Burevestnik, and Gerasimov readily confirmed that it was “not the limit.”

Because it is propelled by an on-board nuclear power unit, the Burevestnik is often described as a “missile of unlimited range.” In his March 2018 address to the Federal Assembly, Putin described it in the following terms:

“A low‑flying, barely noticeable cruise missile carrying a nuclear warhead, with practically unlimited range, an unpredictable flight path, and the ability to bypass interception lines, is invulnerable to all existing and prospective missile defense and air defense systems.”

Putin announced a “successful test” of the Burevestnik as early as October 2023, and two years later the final stage of the missile’s testing appears to have taken place. Although Norwegian intelligence confirmed a test launch from a range on Novaya Zemlya, no radioactive trace was detected in the aftermath. Still, it cannot be ruled out that Russian engineers managed to solve the problem of contamination caused by the “flying Chornobyl.”