Ukraine’s New FP-9 Ballistic Missile With Moscow In Range To Be Ready This Fall, Zelenskyy Says

Ukraine expects its domestically developed FP-9 ballistic missile, a longer-range weapon that its manufacturer says is capable of reaching Moscow, to be ready this fall, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.

According to Reuters on October 3, Zelenskyy said he had personally contacted Ukrainian defense company Fire Point and urged the manufacturer to accelerate work on the FP-9 following the first combat deployment of Ukraine’s shorter-range FP-7 ballistic missile.

“I said to them, where is my FP-9?” Zelenskyy told Reuters. “We need the FP-9. And the FP-9 will be (ready) this autumn, I’m sure.”

The FP-9 is being developed as a significantly longer-range ballistic system than the FP-7. Fire Point has previously said the missile would have sufficient range to reach Moscow from Ukrainian territory.

The missile has a stated range of up to 855 kilometers and is designed to carry a warhead weighing up to 800 kilograms. The ground-launched system is intended to give Ukraine a domestically produced capability for striking targets deep behind Russian lines...

Zelenskyy’s comments came days after Ukraine announced the first combat use of the domestically produced FP-7 tactical ballistic missile. Reuters reported that the FP-7 has a range of approximately 250 kilometers.

The deployment marked another step in Ukraine’s effort to expand its domestic long-range strike capabilities as Kyiv seeks to reduce its dependence on foreign-supplied missile systems.

In the same interview, Zelenskyy told Reuters that Ukraine plans to intensify strikes against Russian oil refineries in response to Moscow’s expanding attacks against Ukrainian energy, transport, and other infrastructure.