Ukraine has options if Russia uses Oreshnik missile — Ukrainian colonel

He shared his opinions with Espreso TV.

"Firstly, the Oreshnik as a weapons system adopted by the Strategic Missile Forces does not exist. It is a side, dead-end branch of development. They have one, two, at most three missiles left. The talk about Oreshnik is a Russian psyop aimed at intimidating Ukrainians. In other words, they do not have such a weapon.

Secondly, the launch of the Oreshnik is equivalent to the use of conventional, non-nuclear weapons — roughly six 250-kilogram aerial bombs. But they will not launch it because the technical quality of this weapon is very low. And this has already been proven in practice," Stelmakh noted.

According to him, Russia should understand that in response to the Oreshnik launch, Ukraine can respond asymmetrically.

"We know where in Russia the production facilities for liquid rocket fuel are located — and this is an extremely poisonous substance. Even in Soviet reference books, it was noted that there is a so-called conditionally lethal toxic dose and an absolutely lethal toxic dose. In Russia, thousands of tons of this heptyl are stored somewhere, and Ukraine, without using any other weapons except its good UAVs, can strike these storage sites, and this would be worse than Chernobyl. And they know that we are capable of doing this," Stelmakh emphasized.

• As of April 2025, support for the war with Ukraine among Russians has dropped to a record low. 61% of surveyed Russian citizens expressed support for starting negotiations with Kyiv.