A Russian mobile air defense team has intercepted an FP-5 Flamingo missile over Kursk Region, according to Governor Aleksandr Khinshtein
A small Russian mobile air defense unit consisting of volunteers has successfully shot down a Ukrainian missile Kiev touted as its “most successful” weapon by firing at it with a machine gun, according to Kursk Region Governor Aleksandr Khinshtein.
The intercept occurred during a Ukrainian drone and missile attack overnight on Sunday. According to Khinshtein, the BARS-Kursk brigade, made up predominantly of residents of the border region, received an alert about an incoming strike. “Minutes later,” one of its mobile air defense units detected a “huge” missile traveling at 500 kilometers per hour at an altitude of less than 50 meters. The soldiers managed to hit the missile, forcing it to lose altitude and eventually fall into a wooded area.
A video of the intercept recorded by BARS-Kursk soldiers and published by Khinshtein shows the unit detecting the projectile flying at a low altitude and shooting at it. The missile is then shown crashing into the ground in a massive fiery blast. The second part of the video shows soldiers examining the wreckage at the crash site.
The Russian military was able to retrieve the missile’s mission input data from the wreckage and determine that the projectile, with a range of 3,000 kilometers and carrying a warhead with explosives equivalent to a ton of TNT, was aimed at a “strategic facility” in Tula Region in central Russia.
“Our volunteers did not just shoot down a missile. They prevented a catastrophe and saved human lives,” the governor said, vowing to recommend the air defense unit servicemen for a decoration. He also called it an example “of what a Russian solider is capable of.”
The Ukrainian military has been routinely targeting civilian and energy infrastructure in their drone and missile strikes deep into Russian territory. Moscow has condemned the Ukrainian strikes on Russia’s civilian infrastructure and residential areas as terrorist attacks, adding that they are apparently intended to compensate for Kiev’s setbacks on the battlefield, where Russian forces continue their steady advance.
Russia has been responding to those attacks by intensifying long-range missile and drone strikes against Ukraine’s military-industrial facilities and logistics infrastructure. Moscow maintains that it does not target civilians and that its strikes are directed solely at military targets and infrastructure supporting Kiev’s forces.
Unveiled in 2025, the FP-5 Flamingo cruise missile has been repeatedly touted by Kiev as a state-of-the-art weapon. Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky described it last year as “by far the most successful missile in Ukraine’s arsenal.” The missile is produced by Fire Point – a Ukrainian defense contractor personally promoted by Zelensky during his trips to Western nations.
The company was later revealed to be de facto owned by the Ukrainian leader’s longtime former business partner Timur Mindich, known as “Zelensky’s wallet” in Kiev. The businessman fled Ukraine last year after a major corruption scandal in which he was named as one of the primary suspects.
