By Galina Korol | 2025-09-08

Ukraine says it now has a missile that can fly farther and hit harder than anything in Russia's arsenal.

In just nine months, Kyiv's Fire Point defense firm built the FP-5 Flamingo, a long-range cruise missile able to carry a 1,150-kilogram (2,535-pound) warhead up to 3,000 kilometers (1,864 miles), enough to reach deep into Russian territory.

The weapon's debut is an indication of a striking shift: while Moscow stages parades to showcase faltering systems, Ukraine is rolling out battlefield-ready technology at speed.

The Flamingo can deliver more than a ton of explosives and travel farther than any missile in Europe. Fire Point technical director Iryna Terekh told Politico in August that the weapon is "faster than all the other missiles we currently have," though she declined to reveal its exact speed.

Analysts say the launcher system fits on a standard pickup truck, using a hydraulic lift to adjust its angle. The six-ton missile launches with solid propellant and flies on a turbofan engine. Fire Point says it is now producing one Flamingo per day and aims to increase to seven daily by October, roughly 210 per month.

During an August 21 press conference, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Ukraine will have "many more" of the missiles before December, hinting at a buildup that could give Kyiv a powerful new tool against Russia's war machine.

A heavy hitter

The unveiling of the Flamingo drew strong reactions in Ukraine and abroad. Experts said the missile is both a technological leap and a strategic message to Moscow and Kyiv's allies.

Austrian Colonel Markus Reisner, head of the Officer Training Institute at the Theresian Military Academy, told Ukrinform in August the demonstration was as much about hardware as it was about communication.

"Images of missiles with serial numbers 479 and 480 were made public. The message to Russia in the information space is unambiguous: 'Soon we will carry out massive strikes deep into Russian territory!'," he said.

Norwegian missile analyst Fabian Hoffmann told Ukrinform that putting the Flamingo into serial production would strip Russia of its long-held advantage of "strategic depth," exposing new vulnerabilities.

He added that the FP-5 puts Ukraine among the "heavy hitters," noting the difference between a 1,150-kilogram warhead and the smaller 20- to 100-kilogram (44- to 220-pound) payloads of most drones.

Hoffman called the Flamingo's 3,000-kilometer range "unprecedented, not just in the Ukrainian arsenal, but also in the European one."

"This allows Ukraine to threaten pretty much any target west of the Urals," he said, adding that Russia's traditional advantage of strategic depth "has potentially been nullified."

A weapon for strategic missions

However, military expert and historian Mikhail Zhirohov told Kontur he views the Flamingo project with some skepticism, warning that its presentation could amount to little more than a publicity campaign.

"Flamingo is essentially a mobilization [missile] variant that was bound to appear sooner or later," he said.

Former Security Service of Ukraine officer and Ukrainian Institute for the Future expert Ivan Stupak also spoke cautiously.

"We've seen these missiles. Yes, they're big and seem serious. But whether they fly as claimed is unclear,” Stupak told Kontur.

"We understand that a certain percentage of Flamingo launches will be shot down, but how many? For now, unfortunately, we only have statements. With drones, by contrast, we can already talk results: a 13% reduction in Russian oil refinery capacity," he added.

Zhirohov also pointed to Flamingo's size as a drawback.

"The missile is very large. It will light up on any radar," he said.

Deputy general director of a Ukrainian electronic warfare company and Air Force officer Anatoliy Khrapchynskyi agreed that Flamingo is a large target. But he argued its resistance to Russian electronic warfare is not a critical issue.

"The navigation system does not rely only on GPS, which the enemy can jam. There are inertial systems and other elements that allow the missile to withstand electronic suppression. And low-altitude flight solves the detection problem -- just as we do with drones," he told Kontur, adding that Russian air defenses in the interior resemble "Swiss cheese with holes."

Khrapchynskyi said Fire Point, a wartime startup turned defense company, is showing ambitions beyond many major firms. He pointed to its FP-1 long-range strike drone, a fully Ukrainian development already hitting targets across Russia. The FP-1 can carry up to 120 kilograms (265 pounds) of explosives as far as 1,600 kilometers (994 miles).

"Given its production capacity, I believe this company can scale up to deliver the number of missiles being discussed each month," he said, emphasizing that Ukraine's new cruise missile is designed for strategic, not tactical, missions.

Expert views range from optimism to doubt, but the Flamingo’s debut has already shifted the battlefield and proved Ukraine can build heavy weapons once thought out of reach.

"The biggest advantage is that we now have it," Khrapchynskyi said. "If you compare it to the FAB-500 [Soviet-designed 500-kilogram general purpose air-dropped bomb], which was built to penetrate concrete structures and destroy factories, here we are talking about a payload of one ton."