Armaments and technologies are important, but the main game-changer in the war against Russia is the will of the Ukrainian people. This was stated by Denys Shtilerman, co-founder and chief designer of the Ukrainian company Fire Point, during a briefing at the international exhibition Eurosatory-2026 in Paris, UNN reports.
"Our weapon is not a silver bullet and not a game-changer. The game-changer is the will to resist of the Ukrainian people. Only that. We focused on long-range strikes because it is not a very competitive market: to create a large cruise missile, you need to invest a lot of money, and few companies are ready for such a risk. We took this risk upon ourselves – and we did it. More R&D costs, but you enter a competitive environment," Shtilerman said.
Answering the question about what other technological capabilities would be useful to Ukrainians, Shtilerman spoke, in particular, about drones capable of being on combat duty for about a day and aircraft cannons against guided bombs.
"A UAV that can be on combat duty for about 24 hours at an altitude of 7,000 meters, equipped with a machine gun and an aircraft cannon to intercept 'Shahed' type drones — with two turboprop engines. This would allow for the interception of 'Shaheds' and the destruction of guided bombs. A guided bomb cannot be shot down by existing anti-aircraft missiles — you pierce the residual wing, destroy the flight control system, but the bomb continues to fly and falls not on the target, but on a civilian building. If you approach it with a 30 mm aircraft cannon from the air — you simply destroy it. That's it," Shtilerman said.
Addendum
The Ukrainian defense company Fire Point is a manufacturer of strike unmanned systems and missiles, including the Flamingo missile. Its FP-1 drones for strikes deep into enemy territory were spotted in the sky over Moscow during strikes on the refinery in the Kapotnya district.
The company also recently conducted tests of the FP-7.x interceptor missile, which will become the basis of the European ballistic shield – the Freyja project.