Ukraine's first announced FP-7 combat launch gives Kyiv a domestic ballistic strike weapon. Fire Point's faster FP-7.x interceptor faces a harder test, and both depend on production Ukraine has not yet shown.
Two Russian ballistic missiles hit a defense-industry expo near Kyiv, killing at least 10, a day after Zelensky and Raytheon agreed to co-produce Patriot interceptors. The strike is the risk statement for Ukraine's air-defense industrial plan.
Kyiv's defenses stopped 90 percent of the cruise missiles and drones in Russia's 11-hour barrage. The ballistic missiles that got through are a delivery problem: interceptors Ukraine already bought have not arrived.
The cruise missile that killed the INF Treaty — a ground-launched, nuclear-capable weapon the US says flies far past the 500 km the treaty banned, and Russia insists stays just under it. The arms-control dispute became its legacy; its reported 2025 combat use in Ukraine is its grim sequel.
Ukraine's deep strikes reached the chip plant that feeds Russian missile guidance, hitting the supply chain behind the weapons fired at its cities, the General Staff said.