Russia claims it shot down Flamingo missile with gunfire

Russian officials say a volunteer air defense unit in Kursk Region shot down a Ukrainian FP-5 Flamingo cruise missile using machine-gun fire during an overnight attack this weekend, an unusual claim for a weapon Russia has typically engaged with surface-to-air missile systems.

Kursk Region Governor Aleksandr Khinshtein said the intercept happened overnight Saturday into Sunday, August 22 to 23, 2026. According to Khinshtein, a mobile air defense team from the BARS-Kursk brigade, a unit made up largely of local residents from the border region, received an alert about an incoming strike and detected a “huge” missile flying at roughly 500 km/h (310 mph) at an altitude below 50 m (164 feet). The team engaged the missile with gunfire, causing it to lose altitude and crash into a wooded area, Khinshtein said.

As evidence, Russian sources published footage recorded on a thermal camera, showing the missile passing overhead and then falling. Separate footage showed what was described as wreckage from the missile itself.

The exact date of the strike has not been independently confirmed, and no outside party has verified that small-arms fire, rather than a surface-to-air missile system or an aircraft, brought the missile down. Some pieces of the recovered wreckage reportedly showed damage patterns consistent with hits from a large-caliber machine gun, though this detail also comes from the Russian side and has not been independently examined. At least one Russian commentator described the released footage as “ambiguous.”

The Flamingo, built by Ukrainian defense firm Fire Point and first unveiled in August 2025, is a large ground-launched cruise missile. It weighs about 6,000 kg (13,200 pounds) at launch, carries a warhead of roughly 1,150 kg (2,540 pounds), and has a stated range of 3,000 km (1,860 miles). Its listed cruise speed is 850 to 900 km/h (530 to 560 mph), well above the roughly 500 km/h Khinshtein described for the intercepted missile, and its flight ceiling reaches 5,000 m (16,400 feet). Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has called it the country’s “most successful missile.”

Russia has claimed multiple Flamingo intercepts since the missile entered use, generally citing dedicated air defense systems. In October 2025, Russian media said a Buk surface-to-air missile system downed a Flamingo at an altitude of about 100 m (330 feet). In February 2026, Russian officials reported additional intercepts during a large-scale missile alert spanning 13 regions.