Putin says Russia is ramping up production of Oreshnik missile

MOSCOW (Reuters) -Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Monday that Russia is stepping up production of its Oreshnik intermediate-range hypersonic missile, which it launched for the first time against Ukraine last November.

"Serial production of the latest Oreshnik medium-range missile system is under way," Putin told a graduating class of military cadets in televised comments.

The system has "proven itself very well in combat conditions," he added.

Russia first used the Oreshnik (Hazel tree) against Ukraine on November 21, when Putin said it had fired the missile at a defence enterprise in the city of Dnipro.

He said he had authorised the strike in direct response to Ukraine's first use of U.S.-made ballistic missiles and British-made cruise missiles to hit Russian territory, after Western countries granted their permission.

Putin subsequently threatened further strikes, including against "decision-making centres" in Kyiv, if Ukraine kept attacking Russia with long-range Western weapons.

Intermediate missiles have a range of up to 5,500 km (3,415 miles), which would enable them to strike anywhere in Europe or the western United States from Russia.

Putin has boasted that the Oreshnik is impossible to intercept and has destructive power comparable to a nuclear weapon, although some Western experts have cast doubt on those claims.

In December, a U.S. official said the weapon was not seen as a game-changer on the battlefield, calling it experimental in nature and saying Russia likely possessed only a handful.

Putin said late last year that Russia could also deploy Oreshniks on the territory of its ally Belarus in the second half of 2025. Belarus shares borders with NATO members Poland, Latvia and Lithuania.

(Reporting by Vladimir Soldatkin and Dmitry Antonov; Writing by Lucy Papachristou; Editing by Mark Trevelyan)