Ukraine’s intelligence services say they destroyed a launch system for the three Oreshnik ballistic missiles ready for launch from Russia’s Kapustin Yar range in the Astrakhan region.

According to Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) head Vasyl Malyuk, the operation took place “on their territory at Kapustin Yar,” carried out by the combined forces of Ukraine’s Military Intelligence (HUR), the SBU and the Foreign Intelligence Service (SZRU).

“It was a very successful mission. The destruction was one hundred percent,” Malyuk said.

“This is something we have never made public before… It happened before the name ‘Oreshnik’ was widely used.”

Ukraine’s intelligence estimates that Russia has fired one Oreshnik missile and destroyed a second, with at least one still in its arsenal. As Foreign Intelligence Service head Oleh Ivashchenko noted:

“There is one [launch system]… We believe that this year up to three were produced, and up to six are planned annually.”

President Volodymyr Zelensky warned that Russia may deploy the Oreshnik to Belarus, putting parts of Europe within its reach.

“We understand that their approximate range is 5,500 kilometers. And there is a dead zone of 700 kilometers. This means that Europeans, especially those in Eastern Europe, should pay attention to this. And everyone else, too. We must pay attention to these risks,” he said.

Russian state media has reported, without evidence, that the missile is capable of hitting any target on the European continent in under an hour and obliterating it with up to six independently maneuvering warheads each armed with an atomic munition.

Russia’s first, and so far, only confirmed use of the so-called Oreshnik missile was in an attack on the city of Dnipro on Nov. 21. The missile is thought by Western analysts to be a modified Soviet-era Soviet RS-26 Rubezh medium-range ballistic missile (MRBM). It has a claimed range in excess of 4,000 kilometers (2,500 miles) and carries six nuclear capable or conventional multiple independently re-targetable hypersonic re-entry vehicles (MIRVs).

Earlier today Russia’s Security Council Secretary Sergei Shoigu reportedly urged skeptics to “believe” in the development and successful testing of Moscow’s new “miracle weapons” – the Burevestnik nuclear-powered cruise missile and the Poseidon nuclear torpedo.

Speaking at the Peoples of Russia and the CIS forum, Shoigu reminded the audience that President Vladimir Putin first announced the creation of these weapons during his 2018 address to the Federal Assembly.

“Maybe someone didn’t believe it then, but now they will have to,” Shoigu said.

On Oct. 26, Putin announced the completion of the “final tests” of the intercontinental Burevestnik cruise missile, describing it as having “no analogues in the world.”

Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov added that during its test flight, the missile, equipped with a nuclear propulsion system, traveled 14,000 kilometers and remained airborne for about 15 hours.

He said the missile’s technical features “allow it to strike highly protected targets at any distance with guaranteed precision.” Putin, in turn, ordered preparations for the missile’s deployment infrastructure within Russia’s armed forces.