Ukraine now has a cruise missile that can travel over 600 miles, far enough to reach Moscow, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy boasted over the weekend.
‘We have significant results,’ Zelenskyy said Saturday. ‘Long Neptune has been tested and successfully used in combat. A new Ukrainian missile, an accurate strike. The range is a thousand kilometers,’ or 620 miles.
That puts Moscow within striking range.
The missile has been in development for years. Battle watchers believe the combat success Zelenskyy referred to was a Friday strike on an oil refinery in Tuapse, Russia, some 300 miles from the front line.
The refinery is under 60 miles from Russian President Vladimir Putin’s sprawling cliffside palace on the Black Sea in Gelendzhik.
The Neptune cruise missile was used in April 2022 to take out a flagship of Russia’s Black Sea fleet.
Zelenskyy recently pledged that Ukraine would produce 100,000 long-range munitions in 2025.
Russia intercepted and destroyed several Ukrainian drones flying over Moscow on Friday, with some coming as close as just two miles away from the Kremlin, according to Russian officials. White House envoy Steve Witkoff was in Moscow last week.
The fresh attacks and new offensive weapons contradict the delicate ceasefire negotiations that will culminate in a phone call between President Donald Trump and Putin on Tuesday.
Zelenskyy has already agreed to the terms of a 30-day ceasefire after meetings with U.S. officials in Saudi Arabia.
‘We’ll be talking about land, we’ll be talking about power plants, that’s a big question. But I think we have a lot of it already discussed, very much, by both sides, Ukraine and Russia,’ Trump said of his call.
Russia has not accepted the terms of the ceasefire and accelerated attacks on Ukraine after Zelenskyy said he would agree to it.