President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that during the daily conference call he listened to the report of the Ministry of Strategic Industries of Ukraine on the production of its own weapons. The head of state also reported on the fact of the successful use of long-range weapons of Ukraine at a distance of 700 kilometers.
Such news is good in itself, as it means that Ukraine already officially has long-range weapons in its arsenal, which allows it to strike enemy targets at a distance of several hundred kilometers. But at the same time, a certain element of mystery still remains. It was not officially reported what the kind of target was hit, and what means it was hit by. If we analyze all the possible options, then we will get such a picture.
Read more: There is a 60-km Strip of EW Obstacles In russia Near Ukraine's Border, But 35-40% of Ukrainian Drones Reach Their Targets
It is quite possible that when President Zelenskyy spoke about a target located at a distance of 700 km, he could well have in mind the recent raid on the airport in Pskov, which cost the enemy the loss of at least four Il-76 military transport aircraft.
These planes are very valuable for the russians - because of the low rates of their production. In any case, it is quite logical to assume that the recent events related to the explosions on the territory of the russian federation could be discussed at the daily conference call with the participation of the President of Ukraine.
If we assume what kind of means of defeat we were talking about, then perhaps we can exclude the Neptune missile from the list of means that could be used to deliver such a blow. The R-360 Neptune anti-ship missile modified for a land-attack, according to available data, has a range of up to 400 km. In order to hit Moscow with such a missile, it is necessary to reach a firing range of 500 km or more, as a result of further modernization work.
Accordingly, unmanned aerial vehicles remain. But in this case, there may be many versions, the authenticity of which cannot be verified.
In particular, it was reported in the Western media that Ukraine is already working on the creation of 6 types of drones, which can have a range of 1,000 kilometers. But if you focus only on data from open sources, you can find information about only two known types of drones with such a range: a UAV with the conditional name "Beaver", which was used to attack objects in Moscow, and a drone called "Morok" ("dark spirit" in English), which The Economist recently mentioned in its publication. The other four models still remain a mystery.
It is interesting that the russians are already publishing their own assumptions about the tactical and technical characteristics of the Ukrainian drone under the conditional name "Beaver". In particular, according to the assumptions of the russians, the range of this UAV is 700-1000 km, the flight time is 7 hours, it can carry a warhead weighing 20 kg and is capable of changing altitude to pass air defense zones and change targets. If these estimates turn out to be correct, it may mean that Ukrainian designers have managed to create a long-range kamikaze drone that is more advanced than the Iranian-made Shahed-131 (it has the same weight of the warhead).
It should be recalled that the first own weapons of Ukraine for strikes on the territory of the russian federation were converted Soviet-made Tu-141 Stryzh UAVs, which could carry up to 150 kg of explosives, and were used for strikes on the Diaghilevo and Engels airfields of the russian strategic aviation in December 2022. This shows how far Ukraine has come in a short time in the course of creating its own long-range weapons.
Read more: Confirmed: Ukraine Remodelled Archaic Tu-141 "Strizh" Into Weapon to Launch Deep Rear Strikes Near Moscow
