Kyiv Could Hit Russia With Domestic Missiles in Months, Says Fedorov

Kyiv (GNP): Ukraine could be capable of striking Russia with domestically produced ballistic missiles within three to six months, former Ukrainian defence minister Mykhailo Fedorov has estimated, marking a potential shift in Kyiv’s approach to deep strikes against Russian territory.

Fedorov said Ukraine has so far relied primarily on long-range drones and cruise missiles for such strikes, but noted that ballistic missile attacks would be significantly harder for Russian forces to intercept.

Speaking in an interview, he said Ukraine needed to defeat Russia in every technological cycle, while acknowledging that Russia, too, was advancing its capabilities rapidly. Fire Point, a Ukrainian defence manufacturer, is currently developing ballistic missiles and carried out a launch test in June. Fedorov, who was a key driver of Ukraine’s drone programme, was removed from his post in July.

His comments came as Ukraine launched one of its largest drone attacks of the war on Sunday, striking a distribution warehouse near Moscow and causing a fire that killed at least six people, according to Russian authorities.

Russia’s defence ministry said it had shot down 1,478 Ukrainian drones over the preceding 24 hours, the highest total it has claimed to date, while regional governor Andrey Vorobyov described the overnight assault as one of the most massive drone attacks in recent memory.

As part of the same operation, Ukrainian forces struck a missile fuel production facility in Russia’s Rostov region, according to Ukraine’s military, which said the facility manufactures solid rocket propellant used in multiple launch rocket systems as well as a range of missile systems and airborne weapons. The strike formed part of a broader pattern of Ukrainian attacks aimed at degrading Russia’s missile production capacity.

The war’s spillover effects were also felt beyond Ukraine’s borders on Sunday, when a Spanish fighter jet shot down a drone that had entered Romanian airspace near the border with Ukraine and Moldova.

The interception, carried out by an F-18 deployed on alliance duties, involved a drone that had entered from Moldova, with debris falling in an unpopulated area of Romania’s Galati region. Officials noted a growing number of drones have crossed into neighbouring states in eastern Europe as the conflict continues.

Separately, the European Union’s foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, said she intends to propose increasing the number of sanctioned Russian entities by one-third, describing the planned autumn package as the most far-reaching sanctions listing since the start of the war.

Once adopted, the measures would immediately raise the total number of sanctioned Russian entities by a third. The bloc has adopted 21 rounds of sanctions against Russia since 2022, though a package approved in July was scaled back following prolonged negotiations among member states after some objected to tougher measures.

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Inside Ukraine, a barrage of Russian drones and missiles killed two people and wounded 14 others on Sunday at a steel plant in Kryvyi Rih, the hometown of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. The plant, among Ukraine’s largest steel producers, said it had partially halted operations following the strike.

A further attack on Kryvyi Rih later that evening killed one additional person, while separate strikes in the Zaporizhzhia region killed two people. In Kyiv, a well-known outdoor book market was also hit during the attack, with bookseller Dmytro Semenukha describing the destruction of his stalls and the loss of goods that had been built up over years.

In a social media statement following the overnight strikes, Zelenskyy said Russian forces were striking civilian infrastructure wherever their ballistic missiles could reach. He said Ukrainian cities had faced more than 1,550 attack drones, nearly 1,560 guided aerial bombs, and 62 missiles over the preceding week, renewing his appeal to international partners for additional air defence support.

Russian officials, meanwhile, said an overnight Ukrainian missile strike had killed six people and wounded four others, including a 14-year-old child, in Russia’s Belgorod region.