Denied ATACMS, Ukraine Says It Is Developing Its 1000 Km Long-Range Weapon To Strike Russia

Russia’s missile and drone attacks on Ukrainian cities have continued unabated. On October 17, amid rising attacks, images from Ukraine showed soldiers and possibly even civilians firing assault rifles and other small arms at the approaching suicide drones.

“All night and all morning, the enemy terrorizes the civilian population,” President Volodymyr Zelensky said on the Telegram messaging app. “Kamikaze drones and missiles are attacking all of Ukraine. The enemy can attack our cities, but it won’t be able to break us,” Zelensky added.

This is the second significant wave of Russian attacks on Ukraine in over a week. However, in contrast to last week’s aerial raid, which rained numerous cruise and ballistic missiles, the raids in the last two days appear to have been led by Shahed-136 drones—also known as Geran-2 to the Russian military.

Ukraine has been caught off-guard by this unfathomable increase in drone attacks that have overwhelmed its air defenses and surface-to-air missile systems. However, it is now in the process of swiftly combating kamikaze drone strikes and launching what could potentially be a counteroffensive riding on the back of an all-new ‘long-range’ weapon system.

The state-owned defense enterprise Ukroboronprom said on October 17 that the Ukrainian government had developed a long-range strike capability weapon and was almost ready to be deployed by the military.The weapon will be fielded as an answer to the Russian attacks carried out using Iranian loitering drones.

The company published a picture of a portion of an unmanned combat aerial vehicle (UCAV) nosecone along with some other scant details.As per the information available, this weapon could have a range of 1000 kilometers and a weight of 75 kilograms. EurAsian Times could not independently verify this information.

Today, Kyiv was attacked again by Iranian-supplied Shahed-136, known as Geran-2, in Russian service. Ukroboronprom has been operating in heightened mode since the full-scale invasion in February”, the company said in a statement.Russia has widely deployed the Iranian Shahed-136 kamikaze drones due to their cost-effectiveness and expandability.

Ukraine’s state-owned Ukroboronprom arms manufacturing concern has announced that it is in the final stages of design for a Ukrainian-made strike drone, which will have a range of up to 1,000 km.https://t.co/lh3GmvEBju

— The New Voice of Ukraine (@NewVoiceUkraine) October 18, 2022