‘Sevastopol is waiting’: Ukraine touts new long-range missile
Joel Gehrke
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Ukraine has developed a long-range missile that could allow Ukrainian forces to strike crucial Russian targets in occupied Crimea and beyond, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
“We have successfully employed our long-range weapons: The target was struck at a distance of 700 kilometers [435 miles],” Zelensky wrote on social media, according to a Kyiv Post translation.
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A top Zelensky aide put a fine point on the significance of the capability. “Sevastopol is waiting,” Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council Secretary Oleksiy Danilov said in a sardonic quotation of a Russian song.
That might not be an empty boast. Sevastopol, the crucial port city in occupied Crimea and the traditional headquarters of Russia’s Black Sea fleet, is only about 186 miles by air from Odesa, another key Ukrainian port city.
The announcement puts a spotlight on Ukrainian efforts to transcend the restrictions imposed by the United States and other Western allies that provided shorter-range weapons to Ukrainian forces on the condition that they not be used to strike Russian territory.
“The missile program of the President of Ukraine is in action,” Danilov added. “The tests are successful, the deployment is effective.”
Zelensky’s team trumpeted that development amid a flurry of apparent drone attacks against Russian targets, including one bombardment that reportedly damaged or destroyed several military transport planes at a base in Pskov, Russia — several hundred miles from the Ukrainian border. That attack, according to Ukrainska Pravda, was carried out using “cardboard drones” developed by Ukrainian security services as a way to avoid radar detection.
“The Russians have one more scary dream,” Ukrainska Pravda tweeted with a demonstration video of the cardboard drones released by Ukrainian officials.
The taunt points to a cottage industry of drone developers that has sprouted in the 18 months since Russian President Vladimir Putin launched his campaign to overthrow the Ukrainian government.
“We are increasing the production of long-range drones,” Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Mykhailo Fedorov said in June. “I cannot comment on the details of the missions here. But in this direction, a certain revolution is also taking place regarding production scaling.”
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Such indigenous innovation could sidestep the limitations imposed by Western governments, as Ukraine’s vaunted defense industrial base operates under the protection of Western air defense systems that have poured into Ukraine in recent months.
“Artillery made in Ukraine. Shells made in Ukraine. Drones, missiles, armored vehicles,” Zelensky said this week. “We are maximizing production capacity. Ukraine can do it. Funding is available. Our defense industry will yield better results.”