Selenskyj: Ukraine tested domestically produced ballistic missiles

President Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukraine had tested its first domestically produced ballistic missiles.

At a press conference in Kyiv on Tuesday, Zelenskyy described the “positive test of the first Ukrainian ballistic missile” as one of Ukraine’s achievements, but declined to provide further details.

“What other developments are there in Ukraine? Well, I thought it was too early to talk about it, but… There was a positive test of the first Ukrainian ballistic missile. I congratulate our military-industrial complex on this.”

“It may be too early to talk about it, but I want to share it with you,” Zelensky said.

It is unclear whether the new ballistic missile is the same as the successfully tested domestic long-range missiles he mentioned in September 2023.

On August 24, Ukraine's Independence Day, Zelensky said the Ukrainian armed forces had conducted successful tests of a new drone missile called Palianytsia.

On Monday, August 26, Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov announced in an update following Russia's massive missile attack on Ukraine that he would respond with “weapons of his own production,” without giving further details.

Although details about Ukraine's missile program remain scarce, reports have been circulating since at least December 2022.

Dr. Oleksandr Marchenko, a physicist who was reportedly involved in Ukrainian missile development, told Euromaidan Press in December 2022 that work was allegedly underway at the Pivdenmash factory, which produced intercontinental ballistic missiles during Soviet times, and that Ukraine has some expertise because the former Soviet regime was involved in missile development.

In June 2023, former Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov said Ukraine had “an approved missile program” to produce long-range missiles, citing the R-360 Neptune subsonic cruise missile as a successful example of Ukrainian-made missiles.

In July this year, Zelensky said that Ukraine was “gradually moving towards the possibility of [its] own missiles” in reference to the country’s domestic missile program.