Ukraine Missiles Strike Russian Drone Component Factory

Several Ukrainian Flamingo FP-5 missiles travelled over 1,000 kilometers into Russia and struck a factory that produces key components for deadly drones, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Wednesday.

The cruise missiles targeted the Progress factory in Cheboksary, capital of Russia's Chuvash Republic. The facility produces the Kometa antennas that enable Russian drones and missiles to bypass Ukrainian air defenses during the Kremlin's massive strikes on the country.

Chuvashia Governor Oleg Nikolayev on Wednesday confirmed Cheboksary had been attacked and reported three injuries. While he did not list the specific buildings hit, independent Russian media channel Astra used videos posted by locals on social media to trace the strike to the Progress plant.

A single Flamingo FP-5 missile can carry about a ton of explosives, and fly for up to 3000 km at low heights. Wednesday's attack was the second to successfully target Progress' facilities in a little over a month. After the company's administrative building was hit on May 5, the complex was covered with drone nets.

In a statement, Zelenskyy thanked "the Armed Forces of Ukraine for their precision" in an operation which he confirmed had struck a plant that "supplies the occupier’s army with components for drones and missiles."

The Kometa antennas produced by the Progress factory have been a source of major headaches for Ukrainian forces. Their upgraded version, which was introduced in early 2025, features anti-jamming elements that have rendered existing electronic defense systems ineffective.

Ukrainian engineers have spent months cracking the antenna's technology and developing ways to "spoof" them, but the Flamingo strikes have the potential to stop them from ever making it onto the battlefield.

"I can’t say how many Flamingos we produce a month, but there are enough of them in storage," Denys Shtilierman, co-owner and chief constructor of Fire Point, told POLITICO in April. "Now, when we get an EU loan, they will fly in a flow."