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By Ellie Cook
Senior Defense Reporter
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Ukraine's new long-range cruise missile might be named after a manufacturing mishap, but its developers say it will be able to pack a punch to Russia thousands of kilometers from Ukrainian soil.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said earlier this month Kyiv was planning to mass-produce the missile, dubbed the Flamingo, this winter.
Kyiv has pushed its domestic defense industry hard to keep up with the demands of three-and-a-half years of full-scale war with Russia, an adversary with its own formidable industrial capacity, plus a helping hand with replenishing its missile stocks from allies like North Korea.
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The conflict has put a heavy emphasis on often cheap drones, but both sides have consistently used sophisticated, long-range missiles to strike across both the front line in Ukraine and over internationally recognized borders.
While Ukraine has leaned on Western-made long-range missiles, not least U.S. Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS) and British Storm Shadow missiles, Kyiv's use of these weapons has been bound up with restrictions and escalation fears.
The Pentagon has blocked Ukraine from using ATACMS in Russia on at least one occasion under a review process implemented in recent months, The Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday, citing two U.S. officials. Then-President Joe Biden had lifted constraints on Ukraine's use of ATACMS before leaving office.
But weapons developed inside Ukraine are free of this type of limitation on their use.
What Do We Know About the Flamingo?
Like with all new, sensitive military technology, there are a lot of unknowns about exactly how the new missile works.
Efrem Lukatsky, a photojournalist with The Associated Press, published an image to social media last week purportedly showing Flamingo missiles at a factory in Ukraine on August 18.
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Developed inside the country by Ukrainian firm Fire Point, the cruise missile has an estimated range of 3,000 kilometers (about 1,860 miles), according to Kyiv. Sometimes referred to as the FP-5 missile, the warhead weighs in at more than a ton, the company says.
Ukrainian media reported the missile has a flight time of roughly four hours, with a maximum speed in the region of 950 kilometers per hour (nearly 560 mph) and a six-meter wingspan.
The first iterations of the missile ended up pink after a factory error, earning its now-stuck nickname, according to The AP.
Fire Point is able to make one Flamingo missile a day, although the company hopes to increase this sevenfold by October, Iryna Terekh, the defense firm's head of production, told the news agency.
"By December, we'll have more of them," Zelensky separately told journalists. "By the end of December or in January–February, mass production should begin."
"It is currently our most successful missile," the Ukrainian leader said. Denys Shmyhal, who took over as Ukraine's defense minister in July, said the Flamingo was a "very powerful weapon" but more information would be made available "when the time comes."
Ukraine has frequently used homegrown long-range missiles to strike Russian assets or targets. Kyiv famously used its Neptune anti-ship missile to sink the Moskva, Russia's Black Sea fleet flagship, in the early weeks of the full-scale war.
Correction 8/28/2025,12:30 p.m. ET: This article was updated to correct a reference to the missile's wingspan.
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