President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy waits for President of European Parliament Roberta Metsola in Lviv, Ukraine 03/04/2023 Press Service of the President of Ukraine/Disclosure via Portal
247 — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Thursday the country had been producing longrange weapons domestically, while his top security official claimed a new missile program was in place.
“Successful use of our longrange weapons: the target was hit from a distance of 700 kilometers!” Zelenskyy published a message on Telegram, in which he spoke about the activities of the Ministry of Strategic Industries. Zelensky did not specify what type of weapon it was or what target it might have been.
Shortly thereafter, National Security and Defense Council (NSDC) Secretary Aleksey Danilov posted a 20second video on X, formerly known as Twitter, showing what appeared to be a nighttime rocket launch.
“The Presidential Missile Program of Ukraine in Action. The tests were successful, the implementation is effective,” Danilov said. “Sevastopol is waiting, Kamchatka is waiting, Kronstadt is waiting…”
While this poses a threat to Russian naval bases or even a peninsula in the Far East, it appears to be misinterpreted lyrics from a popular song by the band Lyube, said to be a favorite of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
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Several Ukrainian news outlets have linked Danilov’s post about the “missile program” to Zelenskyy’s words about a longrange weapon, although there is no evidence of a connection.
The “700 kilometers” could refer to Pskov, a city in northwestern Russia that is just as far from Ukraine’s borders but only 30 kilometers from NATO member Estonia. Several military transport planes were damaged at Pskov airport on Wednesday in an attack carried out by more than 10 drones, according to local authorities. There is no official confirmation from either side about what type of UAVs were used in the attack or where they came from.
Zelenskyy, Danilov and other Ukrainian officials have repeatedly insisted that they only use domesticallymade weapons against Russian territory, as the US and its allies have reportedly banned the use of Western missiles and drones for this purpose.
However, The Economist magazine revealed this week that Ukrainian drone operators rely heavily on Western intelligence and satellite intelligence to evade Russian air defenses.
Ukraine first attacked Moscow with drones in May and began more frequent attacks in July, when its muchvaunted counteroffensive to the south was blocked by Russian fortifications.
The attacks have so far caused little material damage and the Kremlin has described them as “acts of desperation” intended to cover up Kiev’s failures on the battlefield. According to US officials, the attacks are intended to “boost the morale of the people and troops of Ukraine” and show that Kiev “can fight back”.