On August 24, a news item from the Ukrainian defense industry was not much noticed in the West: Kyiv had created the Palianytsia missile-drone (or missile-drone). Minister of Strategic Industries Oleksandr Kamyshin said that day that the secret weapon had been successfully used for the first time against a target in one of the territories illegally occupied by Russia. The information – explained the usually very well-informed Ukrainian channel “deepstate” – was also confirmed by the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Several Russian Telegram channels show that – during the attack on Toropes which yesterday almost completely destroyed the largest Russian weapons depot, with a series of successive detonations that set alight and exploded 30 thousand tons of stored Russian munitions, including very powerful Iskander and Tochka-U missiles (as well as KABU and Grad) – it was filmed a video in which you can clearly hear the noise of a jet engine, comparable to that of long-range missiles, when the Russian weapons depot was hit. This led several observers to speculate that, first of all, the strikes were not ordinary Ukrainian drones. Could they have been the Palianytsia, inaugurated a few days earlier?
The Ukrainian Minister of Industry explained in recent days that Palianytsia is both a drone and a missile, since its tactical and technical characteristics formally fall under both definitions. A few days ago, Lithuania urgently allocated another $10 million to allow Kyiv to finance the purchase of more Palianytsia missile drones. According to Ukraine’s Minister of Digital Transformation, Mykhailo Fedorov, one Palianytsia costs less than a million.
According to open OSINT sources, Palianytsia contains a main propulsion system consisting of a turbojet engine, and the launch is carried out from a ground launcher. The range can reach up to 700 km. Palianytsia is extremely interesting for the Ukrainians because it has the advantages of missiles (high speed of movement reduces the probability of interception by an enemy air defense system), but it is convenient in terms of cost, because Kyiv most likely used all the technical solutions that were already ready. The guidance system could be similar to that of existing kamikaze drones.
The fact is that IStories found that the Toropeets depot was “protected” by an anti-aircraft system (specifically against UAVs) worth 210 billion rubles (about 2 billion euros), which could do nothing against the Ukrainian attack. It seems clear that these were not conventional drones.
Other Russian channels – for example, the very experienced and usually reliable “Two Majors” – believe that such a coup is not possible, weapons aside, without full access to “CIA data. American intelligence agencies,” claims “Two Majors,” have been monitoring the infrastructure of Toropets since 1965. Space photography of the warehouse was carried out regularly.” And the channel publishes a photo with part of the CIA certificate on the ammunition depot.
It could be a completely self-produced weapon, or self-produced with Western help and data. Such as to even overcome the sterile quarrel whether or not to allow the Ukrainians to hit legitimate targets in Russia with directly Western missiles, such as the Storm SAhadow and the Atacms.
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