The record What this system is, where it comes from, who operates it and which of Vigil’s modules it is relevant to — with the evidence each of those rests on.
Record
Conflict relevance
This is the catalogue's single record for this system. It is relevant to the module below; each module's Force Atlas shows how it is used there.
Operators
Russia: Fired once at Dnipro on 21 November 2024, announced by President Putin the same day as a new intermediate-range missile tested in combat conditions. On 30 December 2025 Russia's Defence Ministry stated that a Strategic Missile Forces unit armed with the system had gone on combat duty in Belarus. Numbers, basing and readiness are not published and are not stated here.
Battlefield role
Not a battlefield weapon on its one use: a demonstration of an intermediate-range system with a multiple-warhead conventional payload against an industrial target, announced by the head of state and framed as a response to Western long-range weapon permissions. Its military role, if used again, is strike against large fixed targets that no Ukrainian air defence can engage.
Strengths
Ballistic speed and multiple independently falling warheads that Ukraine's air defence has no demonstrated means of intercepting; range that reaches all of Ukraine and much of Europe from Russian or Belarusian territory; and the political weight of a system described by its user as a new class.
Limitations
One use in two years. The warheads at Dnipro carried no reported explosive effect commensurate with the system, and the industrial target remained standing; the payload Ukrainian intelligence described — six warheads each releasing six submunitions — is a kinetic rather than a destructive configuration. Production is stated by the Kremlin as serial and is not observed. Ukraine's General Staff has since confirmed strikes on the Kapustin Yar range from which the November 2024 launch was made.
Campaign relevance
Derived: a participant organisation in these campaigns carries a typed equipment association with this system. That is not the same as documented use of the system in the campaign itself.
- Force generation and mobilisation Since February 2022
via Armed Forces of Russia (Documented, moderate confidence)
- The February 2022 invasion and the failure at Kyiv February – April 2022
via Armed Forces of Russia (Documented, moderate confidence)
Documented conflict use
Once. On 21 November 2024 the missile struck the Pivdenmash (Yuzhmash) plant area in Dnipro; President Putin confirmed the launch that evening, named the system and described it as a test under combat conditions. United States officials described it as an experimental intermediate-range system. Ukrainian Defence Intelligence described the payload as six warheads with six submunitions each. No second combat use has been confirmed by either government. In December 2025 Russia's Defence Ministry declared a Strategic Missile Forces unit armed with the system on combat duty in Belarus.
Branch & service operators
- Armed Forces of Russia Documented
Dated changes
2025-12-30 Fielding Russia's Defence Ministry stated that a Strategic Missile Forces unit armed with the Oreshnik had gone on combat duty in Belarus. Vigil records the statement and publishes nothing about sites, numbers or readiness.
2024-11-21 Employment First and only confirmed combat use: a strike on the Pivdenmash plant area in Dnipro with multiple conventional warheads, confirmed by Russia's president the same day and read by Ukraine and the United States as a new intermediate-range system.
Related key events
Oreshnik — an intermediate-range missile fired once at Dnipro
On 21 November 2024 Russia struck the Pivdenmash (Yuzhmash) plant area in Dnipro with a new intermediate-range ballistic missile carrying multiple conventional warheads. President Putin confirmed the launch that evening, named the system Oreshnik and described it as a test under combat conditions and a response to Ukraine's first use of Western long-range missiles inside Russia days earlier. United States officials described it as an experimental intermediate-range system; Ukrainian Defence Intelligence described a payload of six warheads with six submunitions each. No second combat use has been confirmed by either government. On 30 December 2025 Russia's Defence Ministry declared a Strategic Missile Forces unit armed with the system on combat duty in Belarus.
Assessed as of — 2025-12-30 Last reviewed — 2026-10-29