Ukraine's defence sector is teaming up with European companies to develop a weapon to replace the US Patriot missile, capable of countering Russia's deadly ballistic threat.
New missile project launched
Kyiv's drone and missile maker Fire Point has secured agreements from a dozen European defence companies to provide radar and guidance for the Freyja missile project. The pan-European initiative was officially launched in Paris last month by ten governments and 12 defence giants, including Eurosam, Leonardo, Thales, and SAAB.
Ukraine relies on US-made Patriots to intercept ballistic missiles flying at several times the speed of sound. However, global shortages of interceptor missiles, worsened by the war in Iran, have left Ukraine exposed and President Volodymyr Zelensky desperate.
Recent attacks and casualties
This week, 17 people were killed by missile and drone attacks on Kyiv and the surrounding area overnight on Wednesday. By Thursday, at least another 13 died in Ukraine from Russian ballistic missile and drone attacks.
Zelensky said: "It is important to cut through all red tape and make the necessary political decisions. Literally every day, people’s lives here in Ukraine depend on the resolve of our partners in Europe and the United States."
He added: "Ballistic interceptors are what could have saved the lives of those killed today." He noted that Kyiv has been supplied with just a third of the air defence missiles in 2026 compared to a year earlier.
Urgency and cost reduction
Firepoint CEO Iryna Terekh said of the new missile deal: "Pretty much everything is agreed. Right now we are in the most intense and also the most complicated stage of finally assembling everything together with surveillance radars, tracking radars and the seekers."
She also mentioned that the company aims to reduce the missile's cost to around £800,000 each, less than a quarter of the cost of a Patriot, and to compress a program that usually takes 20 or 30 years into a couple of years. The new European-Ukrainian interceptor missile has been tested five times, according to sources.
