-Dailymail
MOSCOW – Ukraine has fired a new homemade ballistic missile at Russia in the country’s largest attack on Moscow since the start of the war.
On Sunday night, the final day of the Russian election, Ukraine struck an oil refinery on the outskirts of the capital as Volodymyr Zelenskyy hailed the ‘strength’ of Kyiv’s ‘long-range capabilities’ after Pelican’s involvement in the attack.
Pelican refers to the FP-7 ground-launched ballistic missile that was developed in Ukraine by defence technology company Fire Point, The Telegraph reports
Fire Point is a Ukrainian firm that develops UAV and missile systems for ‘modern precision warfare’.
FP-7 completed testing earlier this month and its involvement in last night’s oil refinery bombardment marks the new system’s first publicly confirmed combat deployment.
The missiles have a maximum range of 200km (124 miles) with an accuracy of 13m.
But it comes amid growing fears across Europe that Vladimir Putin is preparing to attack Nato territory.
Sharing footage of the attack from Sunday night, Zelenskyy said in a social media post: ‘Our long-range responses had a very significant impact in the Moscow region last night.
‘One of Russia’s key oil industry facilities and the aggressor’s logistics facility were hit. These are billions of Dollars that sustain the war machine.
‘The systems used included FP-1, RZ-100, MICH-2000, Palianytsia, Vendetta, Liutyi, Bars, Flamingo, Sichen and Pelican.’
He added: ‘I thank everyone who is strengthening Ukraine’s long-range capabilities.’
Meanwhile, Ukraine appears to be scaling up its use of ballistic missiles as Fire Point’s CEO Iryna Terekh said on September 10 during a speech at a defence conference that a longer ranged FP-9 system was ‘currently undergoing flight tests’.
The Mayor of Moscow, Sergei Sobyanin, claimed Russia had come under attack from more than 1 600 drones on Sunday and accused Ukraine of attempting to ‘disrupt’ the elections.
He added that 450 drones targeting the city were shot down but said a number of them reached the oil refinery, with one destroying a nearby apartment.
Huge fires burned through Moscow overnight following one of Ukraine’s largest drone attacks on the Russian capital.
Two people were killed as Ukraine and Russia continue to attack each other’s energy infrastructure – despite an announcement by US President Donald Trump yesterday that they had agreed to stop.
Ukraine’s Pelican deployment on Sunday comes amid growing fears that Putin could be planning to launch attacks on Nato countries.
European spy chiefs have issued a chilling warning that Russia could be just months away from dramatically escalating its campaign against Nato – potentially through missile or drone attacks, sabotage or even a limited incursion onto alliance territory.
Senior intelligence officials across the continent are increasingly concerned that Moscow could soon attempt to deliberately test Nato’s resolve, with one security chief warning that the danger could materialise in a matter of ‘months, not years’.
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