Con three words in Latin, Quis Nisi Nosclosed a video posted on social networks on engineer Denys Shtilermanco-owner of the Ukrainian missile company Fire Point. “Who if not us?” he asked rhetorically after showing, on the night of the 20th, a triumphant series of 15 launches of its most important rocket, the Flamingo. He didn’t give any more signals or make any more comments. Hours later the Ukrainian defense confirmed that had destroyed a Russian ballistic missile manufacturing plant in the republic of Udmurtia… 1,400 kilometers from Ukrainian territory.
In its fourth year, the Ukrainian war takes on signs of widening in space, enter a new phase, in which it is not only Russia that carries out deep attacks on adversary facilities. And Europe participates in that forecast.
The new Ukrainian offensive capacity is joined, with accomplished facts, three key European deliveries. One comes from the Czech Republic, another from Norway and the other from the United Kingdom.. They are, of course, rockets, some of medium range and others of very long projection. Destroying the weapons and supplies of the Russian army in the territory of the Russian Federation has become a strategic Ukrainian option, if a ceasefire is not reached first, to try stop the daily Russian night bombings this spring.
No restrictions
Last December, an announcement of Czech origin allowed us to glimpse another vertex of Ukrainian rearmament. But it was not the Prague government that did it, but Radim Petrás, senior manager of the Czech drone and avionics company LPP. Its content: the transfer to Ukraine of a series of the newest of the missiles with which the Czech Republic seeks its own autonomy: the Narwhal. The context: a month ago the Czech arms firm had presented its attack drone at the Dubai Air Show.
It is so new that it is still in testing. In fact it is the Russian-Ukrainian battlefield the place where they will rehearser after, this month, its delivery ends. It is about testing the system against electronic warfare interference that each drone is equipped with to fly without being stopped.
Czech Narwhal missile, in an image of the LPP company, which manufactures it / LPP
The MPS Narwhal cruise missile has the appearance of a futuristic jet plane, except that it does not have a cabin or anything similar, only a particularly sensitive nose and, inside, a program of artificial intelligence that allows an autopilot to navigate by examining the terrainor, without having to resort to GPS.
The weapon behaves like a robot autonomous once launched, but can be configured so that, with a jam-resistant radio, it is controlled by a human operator in a command room.
According to the manufacturer, the missile does not require a large installation for its launch: a 4X4 trailer would suffice to place it on a road and make it take off, or put it in the air with a catapult. In flight, it can carry a warhead containing 120 kilos of explosive to targets 680 kilometers away, which it reaches in less than 60 minutes, as it flies at 750 kilometers per hour.
That is, launched from Mikolaiv it has at your fingertips the entire Crimean peninsula; disparado desde Jarkov, reaches all oblast Russian Kursk and Belgorod. They are the points of Russian territory where the Kremlin is amassing the immediate rearguard of its invasion forces, and where this spring the hostilities could intensify. interdiction fire with which Ukraine will try to abort a Russian offensive.
Unlike more powerful European flying weapons, such as the German Taurus missile or the European multinational Storm Shadowthis new installment has a political advantage for kyiv: Czechia – in times of distancing from the administration Trump with respect to Europe – does not set conditions for its use.
“We are not going to tolerate it”
The pact of the Ukrainian Defense Force with LPP consists of Free missiles in exchange for being able to test them in real war. It is not the only European company that tries to obtain know-how in the front. Other manufacturing firms of flying war systems, such as Norway Konsberg Defence & Aerospace They have opened an office in kyiv for the same purpose.
They are the manufacturers of the NASAMS anti-aircraft missilesand are expanding in Ukraine through projects funded by the Norwegian government. Among them, providing Ukraine with missiles JSM that the Ukrainians can put on the F-16 fighters that Europe is providing them.
The other leg of European strategic aid for in-depth attacks by Ukraine against Russia is called Nightfall. It is the British contract manufacturing project ballistic missiles for Ukraine.
British Defense Minister John Healey and Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov meet in London in January 2025 during the start of talks for the Nightfall missile project / Ministry of Defense Ukraine
The United Kingdom Ministry of Defense confirmed on January 11 that it will develop “new tactical ballistic missiles that will increase Ukraine’s firepower to defend against the machinery of Putin”.
The government Starmer seeks to provide Ukraine with a Nightfall missile more than 500 kilometers range. As in the case of the Czechs, it is test the rocket’s ability to fly amid “strong interference electromagnetic”. But an attempt is also made to avoid the response blow. The missile must be launchable from many different platforms, including small trucks, in large groups… and its launchers disappear from the place in a few minutes to avoid being hit by Russian counter-battery fire.
In the background is another bet for European strategic autonomy. The price cap: one million euros per missile. The rhythm: take ten of these rockets off the production line per month. That implies another limit: that of 200 kilo load explosive head.
The project is promoted by a Minister of Defense, John Healeywho, on his last trip to Ukraine, has witnessed one of the more than 19,000 times that the air raid alarm horns have been turned on in 2025. “We were close enough to hear the air raid sirens around Lviv – he said in an official statement -. It was a serious moment, and a harsh reminder of the drone and missile bombing that hit Ukrainians on sub-zero nights. “We are not going to tolerate this.”
Ukrainian base
kyiv wants to go further. The catalog of the Ukrainian military industry that brings together the manufacturer of guidance and electronic warfare systems Bavovna Calls the Flamingo a “kamikaze drone” rather than a missile“designed for deep attacks against targets of some value.” The advantage that its specialists see in the drone-missile is that “it provides Ukrainian forces with a cost-effective and scalable tool to suppress enemy infrastructure and logistics.” far behind the front.”
Those three words perhaps define another chapter of the Ukrainian war. It is not that it was not coming, since kyiv has been demanding from its Western friends a approval for the use of attack weapons deep inside Russian territorywithout Europeans and North Americans finishing authorizing employment that could involve a dangerous climbing in the conflict.
In the end Ukraine, in its fourth year of attrition, does it itself with a rocket-shaped drone that can carry up to 3,000 kilometers from its takeoff point one ton warhead. The Flamingo – that is its popular name, the technical name is FP and a serial number – is already a weapon that is assembled in chainand last August reached the rate of one missile per day.
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