Is Oreshnik as powerful as the Kremlin claims? - Break the Fake - TVP WORLD

With the expiration of the New START Treaty in February 2026, the last remaining limits on U.S. and Russian nuclear arsenals disappeared. For the first time in decades, there are no binding mechanisms to control, verify, or constrain strategic weapons on either side.

Chief among them is the Oreshnik intermediate-range ballistic missile, repeatedly described by the Kremlin as a breakthrough weapon with “no equivalents in the world.” Russian officials have claimed it delivers kinetic effects comparable to a meteorite impact, with components allegedly heating to temperatures approaching that of the Sun.

This episode of Break the Fake looks at what Oreshnik has actually achieved in practice, how its impact compares to the rhetoric surrounding it, and why weapons marketed as apocalyptic often deliver far more modest results. Join Benjamin Lee in a new episode of Break The Fake to find out more.