Fire Point says it supplies much of Ukraine’s long-range strike capacity

Fire Point Ukraine drones are at the centre of the company’s claim that it facilitates more than 60% of Ukraine’s long-range attacks inside Russia. The Kyiv-headquartered missile and drone maker says it has expanded from three founders in 2022 to more than 7,000 employees, while chief executive Iryna Terekh expects output to exceed 100,000 drones by year-end.

The figures, reported by CNBC, illustrate the speed of Ukraine’s wartime industrial expansion. They are company assertions, however, and the available reporting does not independently verify Fire Point’s share of strikes, production totals, contracts, financing, ownership or role in particular operations.

Fire Point was established in response to Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022, according to CNBC. Terekh said the business made about 200 drones in its first year, an output that she described as a substantial achievement at the time. The company’s latest production objective would be more than 500 times that reported 2022 level, although it remains a target rather than completed output.

What does Fire Point make for Ukraine’s long-range strikes?

CNBC identified the FP-1 family of deep-strike drones and the FP-5 Flamingo cruise missile as Fire Point’s flagship systems. Deep strikes are attacks directed far beyond the immediate front line, intended in this case to place pressure on Russian military logistics and economic infrastructure.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy publicly highlighted Fire Point after an attack on an oil refinery in Omsk, CNBC reported, saying that Siberia was within reach of Ukrainian precision. The report did not independently establish that a Fire Point system was used in that attack.

Terekh told CNBC that Ukraine had learned military leverage was necessary to bring diplomacy within reach. Her comments came amid a widening Ukrainian campaign of attacks within Russian territory, from Siberia to occupied Crimea, while Russian forces increased missile strikes on Ukrainian cities, according to the network.

Can a drone campaign change the war’s direction?

The strategic outcome is uncertain. CNBC reported that some observers see the long-range campaign as raising pressure on Moscow, while other analysts caution that it could increase the risk of escalation. Christopher Isajiw of the Atlantic Council told the network that drones by themselves may not bring President Vladimir Putin to negotiations; the cost of prolonging the war would need to outweigh the cost of ending it.

Fire Point is also pursuing a ballistic-missile interceptor that it says could cost a fraction of a US-made Patriot interceptor. Terekh said this would require completing within a few years work that normally takes two to three decades. The project is an ambition, not a deployed capability, at a time when Ukraine has called for more interceptors to defend its cities.

Fire Point should not be confused with Terminal Autonomy, a separate US-registered drone company whose Kyiv factory was reported by The Guardian to have been destroyed by a Russian ballistic missile in July.

This story draws on original reporting from CNBC.