Volodymyr Zelensky said that Kyiv has had secured “significant results” on its missile programme aimed at providing its own security from Vladimir Putin’s threat
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has revealed testing of a groundbreaking new missile capable of hitting Moscow has completed a vital test.
Zelensky today boasted his administration has successfully combat tested its new domestically-produced Long Neptune missile capable of flying 621 miles, a range that puts Russian capital Moscow within its grasp.
Mr Zelensky said that Kyiv has had “significant results” on its missile programme aimed at providing its own security from Vladimir Putin threat. He said: “Long Neptune has been tested and successfully used in combat. A new Ukrainian missile, an accurate strike. The range is a thousand kilometres [621 miles].
“Thank you to our Ukrainian developers, manufacturers and military. We continue to work to guarantee Ukrainian security.” The Ukrainian premier did not reveal where it was tested, but early reports from Telegram channel Exilenova+ suggested that Friday’s dramatic strike at Tuapse Oil refinery may have been by the new Neptune – which is a development of the earlier version of the weapon which sank Putin’s Black Sea Fleet flagship, Moskva, early in the war in 2022.
The Ukrainian channel reported: “There is an assumption that it was [the new] Neptune.” Ten explosions were heard when the strike came, but there was no official confirmation, and a missile – rather than long-range drone – strike might have caused far more mayhem. Yet the Tuapse refinery – a key supplier to the Russian military machine – was still burning 36 hours after it was hit, as seen in dramatic footage.
The refinery is just 55 miles from Putin’s £1 billion clifftop palace at Gelendzhik on the Black Sea, and the strike was a warning to him. Another devastating hit came on Friday – when Ukraine flattened the local history museum in Sudzha soon after the Kursk region town fell back in Russian hands. It was not clear if this may have been a Long Neptune strike.
But there was also a claim in January that the new version of Neptune had destroyed a major Russian drone warehouse in the village of Chaltyr, in Rostov region, triggering a giant fireball. Today’s announcement on the Long Neptune comes amid reports that the new government in Germany under incoming chancellor Friedrich Merz is likely to approve deployment of long range Taurus missiles – each costing up to £1.25 million – to Ukraine.
It has double the range of the British Storm Shadow missile, which Ukraine has not used in recent weeks. Yet the new Ukrainian missile has double the range of the German Taurus. The long-range Neptune is made by manufacturer Luch Design Bureau. The weapon was originally designed as an anti-ship missile but has been adapted during the war to hit land targets, and now to strike at a long distance.
