Ukrainian Defense Forces have received a new type of attack weapon named Palianytsia, described as a hybrid of a missile and an unmanned aerial vehicle. The existence of this long-range suicide UAV was disclosed by President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyi during official celebrations of the country's Independence Day in Kyiv, on August 24. Moreover, Palianytsia has been used for the first time in a real combat mission hours prior.
"Just today, the first and successful combat use of our new weapon took place. It's an absolutely new class of weapon — the Ukrainian Palianytsia missile/drone. This is our new method of retaliating against the aggressor. The enemy was hit. I thank everyone who provided it: all developers, manufacturers, and our warriors. I'm proud of you," Zelensky said about the new Ukrainian weapon.
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This weapon was created in absolute secrecy, and its classification as a "missile/drone" suggests that the developers followed the optimal path of balancing between destructive power and relatively low cost — compared to full-fledged cruise missiles — to enable mass production with an emphasis on cost efficiency.
Although Zelenskyi's statement that this new missile drone was used "today," coincides with Ukraine's long-range attack on an ammunition warehouse in the Voronezh region on the night of August 24, it is too early to say for sure if there's a connection. Still, indications are present: the events of the night were reported as an "attack of Ukrainian drones," and the footage taken by local residents recorded the sound of a jet engine.
On the other hand, when commenting on the new weapon, Ukraine's Strategic Industries Minister Oleksandr Kamyshin said Palianytsia was used not in russia but for a strike on an enemy inside the russian-occupied territories of Ukraine.
"It is a drone — and it is a missile, because according to its specifications, the product falls under both definitions. There will be more missile drones, just as there are already more long-range attack drones, the results of which we see almost every day. The missile drone is the next step in the evolution of Ukrainian defense tech. We were looking forward to the moment when we would demonstrate its effectiveness to the enemy," Kamyshin noted in a social media post.
Overall, the production of various domestically-made long-range weapons tends to be scaling up in Ukraine, for example, earlier this week the Ukrainian Navy made at least two hints about the Neptune cruise missile being used to strike targets in russia: the Conroe Trader ferry near Crimea and the S-300 air defense system in the Rostov Region. There was also an attack on a russian base near Kursk for which Neptune is suspected to be responsible as well.
This is not to mention the methodical strikes of Ukrainian long-range drones on Crimea and on the russian territory, too, with one of the Ukrainian drones recently spotted near the Olenya airfield, 1,800–1,900 km away from the border with Ukraine.
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