Mykhailo Fedorov says Ukraine could be ready to strike Russia with domestically made ballistic missiles within three to six months, a move that would give Kyiv a new long-range weapon even as it still leans on cheaper drones and cruise missiles for its deepest attacks.
The 35-year-old said Ukraine's ballistic missile work has moved fast enough that he believes a launch into Russia could happen by the end of the year. He told CBS News that Kyiv has been pushing to keep pace with Russia, which repeatedly uses ballistic missiles against Ukraine and has forced Ukrainian forces to spend months trying to improve their own defenses and strike options.
In June, Fire Point tested a ballistic missile, one of the clearest signs that the program is moving from development toward something closer to use. Fedorov said the pace picked up while he was serving as defense minister, and he framed the effort as part of a wider race in which each side is trying to stay ahead of the other. “We need to defeat Russia in every technological cycle, and we have to make decisions 24/7,” he said.
That speed matters because Ukraine has so far had to rely on slower drones and cruise missiles to reach deep into Russian territory, while struggling to intercept Russian ballistic missiles when they come the other way. A ballistic missile would not erase that gap overnight, but it would mark a sharper domestic strike capability at a moment when Kyiv has been trying to build more of its own arsenal instead of depending so heavily on outside supply.
Fedorov's comments also land in the middle of a political reset. Volodymyr Zelenskyy fired him in mid-July, citing an irreconcilable feud between Fedorov and Oleksandr Syrskyi, and the move set off protests from thousands of people across the country. About a week later, Zelenskyy removed Syrskyi from his post. Fedorov said he did not want to discuss the reasons with an American audience, but added that whatever drove the split, Ukraine would keep fighting.
Zelenskyy then posted early Saturday that Ukraine had struck a Russian space agency facility in Samara with new Ukrainian-produced Flamingo missiles, another sign that the country is still widening the kinds of weapons it can field on its own. Fedorov, who was credited with increasing Ukraine's deep strikes into Russia tenfold and bolstering its domestic arsenal, said the public reaction to his removal shows support for democratic values and for the war effort. Asked whether he might return to government, he answered: “Soon we will see.”
The open question is not whether Ukraine wants more domestic strike power; it clearly does. It is whether the ballistic missile program can move from test and timing claims to a confirmed launch against Russia by the end of the year, turning a promise of speed into a battlefield reality.
