Ukraine says it has used a new long-range rocket-drone hybrid designed to hit targets deep inside Russia for the first time.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy shared a video on X on Sunday from the government-backed United24 platform detailing the “Palianytsia” weapon, which he said made a “successful” combat debut on Saturday.
While many of the Palianytsia’s specifications are classified, the video seems to suggest that it could be used to hit targets as far away as Russia’s Savasleyka air base in the region of Nizhny Novgorod and Soltsy air base in the Novgorod region — both about 400 miles from the Ukrainian border.
The video says “two dozen” Russian military airfields are within the rocket drone’s range. It adds that it uses a turbojet engine and is fired from a ground-launch platform.
“In the two and a half years of full-scale war, Russia has launched about 10,000 missiles of various types and more than 33,000 glide bombs at Ukraine,” Zelenskyy wrote in his post on X. “Stopping attacks on our cities can be achieved by targeting the carriers of this weaponry — Russian aircraft stationed at military air bases.”
The Palianytsia “was designed domestically to destroy the enemy’s offensive potential,” he said, adding: “The number of rocket drones production will grow just like our long-range strike drones production did, whose efficiency we see almost daily.”
Should the Palianytsia’s suggested range prove accurate, the system’s arrival on the battlefield may be particularly timely for Ukraine’s forces.
While Ukraine is not allowed to use Western-supplied weaponry to strike targets deep inside Russian territory, recent Russian moves could mean that such weapons would be rendered ineffective even if the West were to change policy.
One unnamed Biden administration official told Politico earlier this week that Russia had moved targets out of range of the missiles donated by the Western allies, like the Storm Shadow or Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS).
An unnamed senior administration official added that “90% of the planes that launch glide bombs” from Russian airspace had already been relocated out of range of those missiles, Politico reported.
The ATACMS can reach 300km (186 miles), while the Storm Shadow missile can reach about 250km (155 miles).
The Institute for the Study of War said it had “observed confirmation of redeployments of Russian aircraft to airfields out of range of Western-provided long-range weapons.”
While Western limits remain in force, Ukraine has resorted to using relatively cheap, domestically-produced drones to carry out long-range attacks on Russian territory.
Ukrainian forces have claimed some notable long-distance hits on Russian aircraft in recent months, including on a Russian Tu-22M3 supersonic bomber at Olenya airbase in Murmansk, 1,100 miles inside Russia.
As well as inflicting damage on Russia’s offensive capabilities, Ukraine’s long-range strikes are also likely designed to pressure Russian air defenses and spread fear among locals, experts previously told Business Insider.
The new rocket drone comes as Ukraine continues its counteroffensive in Russia’s Kursk territory.
