By Ellie CookShareNewsweek is a Trust Project memberWork has started on a new rocket fuel factory in Denmark set to be the first time a Ukrainian weapons manufacturer will operate in a NATO country.
Production by Fire Point is expected to start in the spring. The company says the plant is intended to remove a bottleneck in the manufacture of solid propellent for Kyiv's domestically made missiles.
Why It Matters
The Danish defense minister, Troels Lund Poulsen, said back in September Ukrainian firm Fire Point would open a manufacturing site in the southern town of Vojens. Less than 30 miles from fellow NATO member Germany, Vojens already boasts an advanced fighter jet base.
Fire Point, which has emerged as one of Ukraine's most prominent defense players, is pumping out Flamingo long-range cruise missiles hailed by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as the country's "most successful missile."
It is also facing an anti-corruption probe run by Ukraine's National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU). Former U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo joined the company's advisory board in the midst of the investigation.
...What To Know
"We are starting a new chapter," Danish Business Minister Morten Bødskov said on Monday. "We must help Ukraine against [Russian President Vladimir] Putin's horrors, and with the groundbreaking ceremony today, the project in Vojens enters the next phase."
Production will start in the spring of next year, Danish media reported.
Fire Point was set up in 2022, shortly after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of its neighbor. The company produces FP-1 deep-strike drones and formally debuted its Flamingo missile to the media in late August.
The Flamingo is touted as able to strike targets thousands of miles away. Zelensky had said over the summer the missile would be mass produced over the winter months.
Just days after garnering significant international attention, Ukrainian media reported Fire Point was staring down a NABU probe related to alleged misleading of the government on prices and deliveries, and alleged ties to a former associate of Zelensky's, Tymur Mindich. Mindich is implicated in a major energy corruption and kickback scandal reverberating through Kyiv.
One of Fire Point's co-owners, Denis Shtilerman, said Mindich had attempted to buy half of the company's shares but was refused, according to Ukraine's Suspilne public broadcaster.
FirePoint said none of its facilities had been searched by NABU and it had handed over all requested documents to authorities, Ukrainian media reported last month.
"In general it’s good they [Ukrainian authorities] are working on this," Fire Point's chief technology officer, Iryna Terekh, told The Associated Press. "We completely support, as a company, the fact that this investigation is happening."
Terekh said the company had commissioned an independent audit of its prices and production.
"Our factory in Denmark is dedicated to solve a bottleneck with solid rocket propellent," Terekh told the news agency.
Ukrainian media quoted Poulsen as saying Monday he had "no concerns about Fire Point in Denmark," but was "concerned about the current discussion of the corruption scandal in Ukraine."
What People Are Saying
"We must help our Ukrainian friends in their fight for freedom," former Danish defense minister Morten Bodskov told AFP on Monday.
"With the groundbreaking ceremony, a strategically important production facility is secured for the benefit of both Ukraine and Denmark," Danish Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsen said in a statement released on Monday.
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