(Bloomberg) -- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy called for domestic production of weapons to be ramped up after his forces received the first batch of a new drone-missile.
Developing its own military capabilities is a priority for Kyiv, as the country remains highly dependent on US military aid that the election of Donald Trump has put in doubt. Authorities began developing long-range weapons to strike airfields inside Russia with the aim of stopping Kremlin attacks on critical facilities, including the energy sector.
The new Peklo missile-drone, whose name translates as “Hell,” was delivered to the military Friday, Zelenskiy said in a post on social media platform X.
“The mission now is to scale up production and deployment,” the president said.
The Peklo, which has a range of 700 kilometers (435 miles) and a speed of 700 kilometers per hour, was developed within a year, Strategic Industries Minister Herman Smetanin said on Telegram. It’s the second drone-hybrid weapon developed by Ukraine after the unveiling this summer of the surface-launched Palianytsia.
--With assistance from Aliaksandr Kudrytski and Olesia Safronova.
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