According to Badrak, the Ukrainian military tested Sapsan in mid -May, successfully destroying the Russian military facility at a distance of almost 300 km. He noted that the missile showed high speed during the tests and “faster than American Atacms and is closer to the Russian Iskander. Badrak calls Sapsan a large powerful weapon. The warhead of this missile weighs 480 kg, while the new American ballistic PRSM ballistic missile for the Himars system is only 91 kg.
“Therefore, it can be assumed that Ukraine is already on the way to missile building, and this is important not only for the present, but also for ensuring the future state and nation,” the expert said.
Badrak also informed that preceded the success of new Ukrainian ballistics.
“Frankly, the success of this missile program preceded the success. Since July 2024, the profile deputy Minister of Defense Anatoly Klochko, who became the coordinator of the program, appeared, the center of gravity moved from the Ministry of Development of Ukraine to the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine. What is logical because the Ministry of Defense is the customer of the missile and is conducting all the programs of specialized military-technical cooperation,” said he said. Badrak.
After that, he said, the missile program was separated from all other developments, and the Ministry of Defense had the Main Directorate of Exception of the missile program and the profile department responsible for policy against military missiles for the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
The analyst emphasized that now Sapsan is launched into serial production. He says that the Ministry of Defense does not see obstacles for this and “even synchronization of actions in the work of the defense department and the Ministry of Strategprom is achieved, which allegedly assure the military.
Context
In 2023, then the Minister of Defense of Ukraine Alexei Reznikov reported that Ukraine could soon “surprise” Russian invaders with the Rulet-2 Russian missile system (Sapsan). The creation of an operational-tactical missile with a range of up to 500 km for the Ukrainian army in Ukraine spoke, according to the article by Defense Express since 1994.
August 27, 2024 President Vladimir Zelensky said that Ukraine Successfully tested The first ballistic missile of its own production. He did not reveal any details about her. Profile edition Defense Express It was suggested that we can talk about the operational-tactical missile complex “Grom-2” (“Sapsan”), which has been developed from the mid-2000s. Advisor to the head of the office of the President of Ukraine Mikhail Podolyak stated that the new Ukrainian missile could overcome the distance of 600-700 km.
On November 2, the director of the State Enterprise “Special Techno Export” Alexei Petrov said in an interview with OBOZ.ua that the Ukrainian military industry would begin to produce long -range missiles within a year. “I think that my missiles are already such, say, winged and ballistic, we will have it until the middle of 2025. I saw the tests, so far there are only flying ones, but there are results,” he said.
On June 9, 2025, the director of the development of the information and consulting company Defense Express Valery Ryabykh suggested that Ukraine is probably already experiencing its own ballistic missile in combat conditions, as evidenced by a sharp increase in the number of destroyed enemy command posts in early May.
