Macron: EU Must Have Its Own Oreshnik

By Staff, Agencies

French President Emmanuel Macron said France and its EU partners will speed up development of long-range weapons, citing Russia’s Oreshnik as a technology that could quickly alter the balance of power.

The Russian military used its cutting-edge Oreshnik hypersonic ballistic missile system last week to strike a Ukrainian aviation plant in Lviv, which was servicing F-16s and MiG-29s near the Polish border.

“We are within range of these shots,” Macron warned soldiers in a speech at the Istres-Le Tube Air Base on Thursday.

He noted that France seeks to obtain similar weapons through the so-called European Long-Range Strike Approach [ELSA] initiative.

“The initiative that we launched, known as ELSA, makes perfect sense,” Macron said, noting Russia’s recent firing of a very long-range missile, the Oreshnik.

Macron stressed that Europe, especially France, must acquire new weapons capable of shifting the balance of power in the short term.

Macron urged Europe, especially Germany and the UK, to develop long-range strike capabilities to reinforce credibility and nuclear deterrence.

Launched in 2024, the ELSA program unites several European countries to develop long-range strike capabilities, though concrete plans are still pending.

Russia first tested the Oreshnik at a Dnipro weapons plant in November 2024, began mass production, and deployed it to Belarus in late 2025.

President Vladimir Putin has said the Oreshnik has no equal globally, comparing its power to a “falling meteor.” According to him, the system carries dozens of homing warheads capable of hitting multiple targets while traveling at ten times the speed of sound.

The second Oreshnik strike was conducted as part of Russia’s response to an attempted “terrorist attack by the Kiev regime” on a presidential residence in Novgorod Region, according to Moscow’s Defense Ministry.

CCTV footage from Lviv captured numerous projectiles descending from the sky in rapid succession, but Kiev has yet to confirm the scope of the damage.