NABU probes Flamingo missile maker’s ties to Mindich, now top Defense Ministry supplier – Kyiv Independent (updated)
Drone Industry
The National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) has launched an investigation into the manufacturer of the Flamingo missile and Fire Point strike drones.
As part of the probe, detectives are to determine whether the company inflated prices on its products under contracts with the Ministry of Defense, Kyiv Independent reported, citing five sources.
Three of those sources specified that the current NABU investigation indicates that the true owner of Fire Point may be Tymur Mindich, a friend of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and co-founder of the Kvartal 95 studio.
"There are fairly persistent rumors that the (Fire Point -ed.) drones are linked to Mindich, and I am fully convinced that this version of events is accurate," a government source familiar with the investigation told the outlet.
According to the source, the investigation began about four months ago, shortly before the controversial attempt by Zelenskyy’s administration to limit NABU’s independence.
Fire Point confirmed the existence of the NABU probe but downplayed its significance, denying any potential allegations against the company.
"There is no point in searching for secrets where there are none," Fire Point’s Chief Technology Officer Iryna Terekh said.
The press service of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) did not deny that an investigation concerning Fire Point is underway but clarified that it does not specifically concern the Flamingo missile.
"NABU and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office are not conducting an investigation into the Flamingo missile mentioned in the media," NABU said, while not denying a probe into the company’s drone supplies under Defense Ministry contracts.
At the same time, the outlet reported that Fire Point has emerged as one of the largest, if not the largest, recipients of the Ministry of Defense’s budget funds for drones.
In 2024, the company sold its long-range FP-1 drones to the government for 13.2 billion hryvnias (about $320 million). According to its annual budget, the Ministry of Defense spent a total of 43 billion hryvnias ($1.04 billion) on drones last year.
Fire Point, for its part, said that in 2024 it sold about 2,000 long-range drones, adding that it prices them at roughly $55,000 per unit, which would put sales at about $110 million.
Between 2023 and 2024, the company’s revenue, according to publicly available corporate filings, rose from $4 million to more than $100 million.
A source familiar with Fire Point’s contracts said the company will receive more than $1 billion in 2025 under state contracts. Iryna Terekh acknowledged that the company receives funds via the Ministry of Defense under a "Danish model" of financing. She added that Fire Point also received funding under a €5 billion deal with the German government announced in May.
Until recently, the company was virtually unknown outside Ukraine’s defense circles, but in recent weeks, Fire Point has launched a large-scale PR campaign, including in Western media. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has called the Flamingo missile Ukraine’s "most successful" weapons system and announced its mass production.
