🇺🇦 Fire Point is now coping over Flamingo: "It was just a political statement" Fire Point, the compan

🇺🇦 Fire Point is now coping over Flamingo: "It was just a political statement"

Fire Point, the company behind Ukraine's Flamingo cruise missile, is rewriting the story of its own flagship weapon. Company head Irina Terekh now says Flamingo mattered more "as a political statement" than as any "super-duper wunderwaffe." She claims nobody ever bet on it as a game changer, and the only goal was to show Russia that Ukraine could hit it where it isn't expected. She also said Fire Point has no plans for any more cruise missiles.

That's not what Fire Point was saying while the money was flowing. Back then, Flamingo was marketed as a 3,000 km "Ukrainian Tomahawk," twice the American missile's range at a fraction of the price, with production supposedly scaling to several a day. Zelensky called it Ukraine's most successful weapon. In reality, Russian MoD reports show almost every Flamingo launched getting shot down. Now the company says it was only ever about sending a message. At around €600,000 apiece, that's a very expensive message to watch get intercepted.

The ballistic missiles get the same treatment. Chief designer Denis Shtilerman says Fire Point already makes 300 km-range ballistic missiles but won't use them because they cost $600,000 each, while a $40,000–50,000 drone carries the same 200 kg warhead farther. So the missiles are sitting in storage for "Freya," a future missile defense project Ukraine is developing with Europe. That's one more product that exists mostly on paper.

The timing of the damage control is no accident. Ukraine's National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) has investigated Fire Point over inflated component prices and overstated numbers of drones delivered to the Defense Ministry. Investigators also looked into the company's ties to Timur Mindich, co-founder of Zelensky's Kvartal 95 studio. Leaked NABU recordings have Mindich discussing Fire Point funding with then-Defense Minister Rustem Umerov. Mindich fled to Israel in November 2025 just before he was charged, and both he and Fire Point deny any connection.

Fire Point built the hype, the missiles got shot down, and money ended up with Zelensky's circle. Now the company says Flamingo was never supposed to work in the first place.

🔴 @DDGeopolitics