A thick column of smoke overcomes a huge fire. The Tuapsé oil refinery, on the Russian coasts of the Black Sea, was struck on March 14 by a Ukrainian missile shot. According to local authorities, three days were necessary for firefighters to overcome flames, which ravaged part of this energy site in the Krasnodar region. On social networks, satellite images of the area show that part of the refinery has been charred.
The strike on this oil infrastructure was led by kyiv thanks to a new kind weapon, fully manufactured in its borders: the long Neptune. This cruise missile, evolution of a previous less powerful model, has been developed in recent years to be able to hit Russia stronger on its land. The Tuapsé operation was also praised on the encrypted messaging Telegram by the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky: “We are happy with the results of Neptune.”
The characteristics of this new machine allow Ukraine to envisage more distant strikes than with most of their ammunition. “”[C’est] A new Ukrainian missile, very precise. It has a range of 1,000 kilometers, “said the head of state during his communication. The long Neptune is the new version of a missile already used by Ukraine since the start of the war, the R-360 Neptune. Put into service in 2021, before the invasion of the country, it allowed to target Russian positions at sea, but only had a range of 300 kilometers. This model is at the origin of the explosion of Moskva, this imposing Russian cruiser of more than 13,000 tonnes cast in April 2022.
Up to 350 kilograms of explosive loads
The country’s military forces were then intended to improve technology in order to be able to use it more often. Its control capacities have also been perfected, in particular by adding an infrared system. And beyond the three times higher litter, its striking force would be much more important than that of most of the Ukrainian weapons used during this conflict. According to a source from the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense, the long Neptune could transport up to 350 kilograms of explosive loads. Drones, which also allow kyiv to touch targets sometimes located 1,000 kilometers inside Russian territory, cannot give so many explosives.
Volodymyr Zelensky set a target of 100,000 ammunition produced in Ukraine over the year 2025. Could the country now succeed in producing these long Neptune missiles in quantity? “I hope that with the combination of our technological, manufacturing and financial capacities, Ukraine and its Western partners will really be able to raise production in power. But the question is more to know where they can be produced, because the entire Ukrainian territory is attacked”, underlines Mykola Sunhurovskyi, researcher at the Ukrainian research center Razumkov, interviewed Dw. If kyiv decided to produce these devices in number, Moscow would undoubtedly try to target the factories where they are manufactured.
Above all, according to experts, the increase in the number of Neptune long missiles would not be able to fill a possible American disengagement in terms of military aid. “By considering what the Ukrainian armed forces need in terms of missiles, this will not be enough to replace Western weapons. This will only be a supplement to them,” continues Mykola Sunhurovskyi, always questioned by German radio. The questioning of the military aid provided by the United States, for a time suspended by Donald Trump after arriving at the White House, pushes kyiv to take measures to limit the consequences of a possible withdrawal.
Not an alternative to Western aid
When he was in power, Joe Biden had already relied on allowing the use of long -cruise Atacms missiles (Army Tactical Missile Systems) to strike Russia. In mid-November last, once Donald Trump elected, the former Democratic president had finally given the green light. In early January, Moscow had thus indicated that it had intercepted several projectiles of this type. But since the arrival of the Republican in the oval office, nothing indicates that new atacms have been delivered to Ukraine. Nor how many are still in stock in the country’s deposits.
Consequence: beyond these American products, only the British missiles Storm Shadow were previously available in the Ukrainian arsenal to aim for distant targets in Russia. The production of new long Neptunes therefore seems decisive for kyiv, at the very moment when the prospect of peace talks is pushed by the American administration. This week, Donald Trump notably called Russian President Vladimir Putin, then Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, to determine the conditions for a potential truce between the two belligerents. The Ukrainian camp thus validated the proposal for a 30-day ceasefire offered by Washington.
In the event of failure of these potential talks, the use of these new devices, although marking an important step in the Ukrainian conflict, will have to be accompanied by the continuation of Western support. “These cruise missiles alone cannot change the course of war even if they are used much more often than today. We have the experience of Russia, which has launched us a lot more different missiles, and yet we are still there,” analyzes with Politico Mykola Bielieskov, analyst at the Royal Institute for Strategic Studies in London. In any case, the development of this unprecedented missile demonstrates kyiv’s desire to continue to produce weapons to defend himself. Far from the requirement of Vladimir Putin at the end of the “rearmament” of Ukraine, posed as one of the conditions for a possible truce.