Breakthrough: Ukraine confirms first use of homegrown ‘Pelican’ ballistic missile

Ukraine’s long push to build its own long-range strike arsenal has quietly moved into a new phase over the past year.

Now one of the weapons at the center of that effort has surfaced in the war, named for the first time by Kyiv’s president in the same breath as a target hundreds of kilometers inside Russia.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the overnight operation on September 20 against the Gazprom Neft Moscow oil refinery in the capital’s Kapotnya district involved a Ukrainian ballistic missile called “Pelican”, used together with the FP-5 Flamingo cruise missile and hundreds of drones.

The Pelican is the public name linked to Fire Point’s FP-7, a ground-launched ballistic missile that only entered military trials this month after two earlier phases of operational testing.

It should be noted that a direct link between the Pelican and FP-7 has not been officially confirmed.

Chief Designer at Fire Point, Denys Shtilierman did however post footage of the aftermath of the Ukrainian strike without providing any explanation. Shortly after, he posted what seems to the launch of several missiles.

1,500 m/s

The FP-7 is built by Fire Point, a Kyiv-based defense firm that also produces the FP-1 long-range strike drone and the Flamingo cruise missile.

According to specifications carried by Ukrainian defense outlet Ukrmedia, the missile has a declared top speed of around 1,500 meters per second, a warhead of up to 150 kilograms and a stated accuracy of about 14 meters.

Its official range is up to 200 kilometers, with later company statements extending that to 300 kilometers depending on the warhead.

Radio NV analyst Vasyl Pekhno put the operational range at 200 to 350 kilometers, which sits below the distance from Ukrainian-held territory to Moscow, arguing instead that the missile was used as part of a multi-axis strike to target Russian air defenses during the attack.

This would create gaps in Russia’s air defense, allowing for the main attack to reach the intended target.

A mixed salvo built to overwhelm defenses

Zelenskyy listed a wide mix of weapons in the operation, including FP-1, RZ-100, MICH-2000, Palianytsia, Vendetta, Liutyi, Bars, Sichen, Flamingo and Pelican systems.

Defense analysts at Defence Matters wrote that Ukraine combined several classes of long-range weapon to complicate Russian air defenses through varied flight profiles and speeds.

The outlet also cautioned that Zelenskyy did not specifically identify the Pelican used on September 20 as the FP-7, and that public evidence so far does not amount to a confirmed FP-7 combat debut.

Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin described the assault as the capital’s largest drone attack to date. Ukraine’s general staff said the primary crude distillation unit at the Kapotnya refinery, on Moscow’s southeastern edge, was hit and caught fire.

Struck a week after Trump’s public request

The attack came one week after US President Donald Trump publicly urged Zelenskyy to halt strikes on Russia’s diesel refineries, telling reporters in Ireland on September 13 that the campaign was pushing global fuel prices higher.

Kyiv maintains that Russian oil refineries are legitimate military targets that fund the war.

Fire Point Chief Executive Iryna Terekh told the MSPO defense exhibition in Poland earlier in September that the FP-7 was ready for front-line deployment in a matter of weeks.

Zelenskyy’s mention of the Pelican in the Moscow operation is the first time he has publicly named the system in connection with an active strike.

This article is made and published by Jens Asbjørn Bogen, who may have used AI in the preparation