BBC: What Is Known About The First Strike Of The Flamingo.
- 2.09.2025, 13:17
A serious challenge for Russia.
On Saturday, Ukraine probably struck a "Flamingo" - a cruise missile of its own manufacture - at a Russian target for the first time, suggests BBC military observer Pavel Aksyonov.
Kiev announced production of the missile several weeks ago, in August. Its photo and technical specifications were made public before Vladimir Zelensky's trip to Washington.
It turned out that it can fly three thousand kilometers and carry up to a ton of explosives.
First combat appearance of the "Flamingo"?
On Saturday morning, Ukrainian forces struck a Russian military facility on the shore of the Perekop Bay near the town of Armyansk in annexed Crimea.
The Astra online publication said the strike on a Russian FSB border outpost was carried out with Neptun missiles. The Ukrainian publication "Militarnyy" claims that they were Flamingo cruise missiles.
August 31, the Ukrainian telegram channel "Mykolaiv Vanek" posted a video of a missile launch similar to the Flamingo on the sea coast. The "Militarny" report said that these were the same "Flamingo" missiles that then hit an outpost near Armyansk.
There has been no confirmation of this information from independent sources.
It is also difficult to assess the nature of the damage - there are no high-resolution satellite images in the public domain. The BBC has satellite photos from the PlanetLabs service, but their quality does not allow to assess the results of the strike.
The building of the border outpost complex was probably damaged - the image shows a dark spot, which may indicate an explosion.
It is also possible that the second explosion occurred near the territory of the facility - this is also indicated by a dark spot near the road.
The stated capabilities of the Flamingo missile - a range of three thousand kilometers and a warhead weighing more than a ton - would be easier to assess if it had flown a greater distance. The outpost is only a few dozen kilometers from the territory on the coast controlled by the AFU.
The videos of the launches, however, show that they are cruise missiles, in outline indeed similar to the "Flamingo" missiles that were published earlier.
Serious challenge for Russia
The appearance of a new type of Ukrainian missile caused active discussion on social networks, and because of its appearance - an engine or air intake mounted behind and on top of the missile body, as well as fixed wings - it even began to be compared to the German "Fau-1" of World War II or the Soviet reconnaissance drone Tu-141 "Strizh".
Military observers, however, based on its appearance and claimed range, assume that the missile in question is actually a Ukrainian version of the FP-5 missile made by the Emirati company Milanion Group. Its stated characteristics are: range up to 3,000 kilometers, flight altitude - up to 5 kilometers, cruising speed - 850-900 km/h, maximum speed - 950 km/h, maximum time in the air - up to 4 hours.
How many such missiles and how quickly Ukraine can produce them is still unknown.
Nevertheless, even launching 10-15 such missiles with a ton of explosives at some military plant deep in Russia could be a serious challenge for the Russian military-industrial complex.
A range of 3,000 km. If these missiles are really capable of flying at such a distance, they will allow Ukraine to "get" targets not only in Russia's border areas, but also on its entire European territory, as well as in the Urals and Tatarstan.
For example, the distance from Kiev to Moscow is 750 kilometers.
From Kharkiv Oblast to Elabuga in Tatarstan, where the Shaheds are manufactured, is about 1,400 kilometers, and from there to the Kupol plant in Izhevsk (another place where the Shaheds are manufactured) is about 1,300 kilometers.