Russian state-controlled media has previously claimed the Oreshnik missile could strike London in just eight minutes after launch from an under-construction base in Belarus
Vladimir Putin is building a secret new base that could be equipped with a “Doomsday nuke” capable of flattening London just eight minutes after launch.
Major construction work at a site near Pavlovka village, south of Minsk, in Belarus, that has continued for the past year appears to show the beginnings of a new Russian forward base. Satellite pictures have revealed the site is so far the size of around 280 football pitches, and is equipped with 13 ammunition depots measuring 100ft by 60ft, which have been built behind defensive walls.
Experts believe the expansive base could be used to house Russia’s Oreshnik ballistic missile system, putting Putin’s forces in easy striking distance with the UK and the rest of Europe.
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Russian state media boasts the “game-changing” doomsday intermediate-range ballistic missile – which has only ever been used once in a “test” launch in Ukraine without a live warhead – could land in the UK in just eight minutes. They also claim modern western defences are unable to stop the missile, which Putin is reportedly planning to deploy in Belarus by the end of the year.
From its current placement, the Oreshnik would be able to hit London within 20 minutes before unleashing a powerful payload boasting what Putin claims are temperatures reaching 4,000C, incinerating targets.
The base, according to reports, also houses three 1,000ft hangars, with the skeletons of various buildings spotted nestled among a snaking network of roads. The site, despite having been seen on satellite imagery, appears to have been concealed from the Belarusian public.
It is not shown on maps, and has not been reported in the tightly-controlled Belarusian media. Polish military expert Konrad Muzyka told Radio Liberty the base “could be the place where the Oreshnik will be stored”. He said: ”These objects are connected with some strategic-level equipment that could be deployed in Belarus, whether it is the Oreshnik or something else.”
“It could be nuclear weapons, because there could be facilities in this place that were used to store such weapons during the Cold War.”
Marko Eklund, a retired Finnish intelligence officer, said: “I can’t say what else it could be. If the Oreshnik base appeared here, it could be just right for this role.” There have been no clearly confirmed tests of Oreshnik since it was used against Ukraine last year form Kapustin Yar test site in Astrakhan region.
Putin ally Alexander Lukashenko, the Belarus president, 71, boasted to journalists that he would have the lethal Oreshnik missiles from “my elder brother” Putin, 72, “any day now”. Yet there is still no sign of it yet being deployed in Belarus.
The news comes as Polish authorities revealed today they were forced to shoot down Russian drones that strayed onto their land, with the country’s military chiefs condemning the “unprecedented violation of Polish airspace”. Prime Minister Donald Tusk has said Poland is now at its closest to open conflict since World War Two as NATO weighs its response.