Once a film casting agency, Fire Point now holds $1 billion in drone contracts – raising questions about favoritism, failed designs, and the liquidation of Kasyanov’s unit.
The New York Times wrote a long piece about the privileges of the company Fire Point and about Kasyanov’s unit, which was liquidated three weeks ago. It was reported by Yuriy Kasyanov.
Even in prosperous America they noticed Fire Point’s astonishing successes and the tragic consequences for those who dared to question those successes.
French and German journalists write and speak about the liquidation of Kasyanov’s unit, as do British and Danish, Ukrainian and Polish journalists — and only the President of Ukraine, the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, does not hear us.
One of the best deep-strike units has been disbanded, while funding for production of the “Flamingo” missiles, despite obvious “technical difficulties,” will be provided in full by the state (with money from Western partners), the president says.
A strange situation. You have an effective unit that can overcome Moscow’s air defenses — yet you liquidate it. You do not yet have effective “Flamingo” missiles — yet you fund them.
As a mathematician, physicist, chemist, electronics engineer, and drone designer — I do not understand this. As a military man — by fate — I will serve wherever the motherland tells me.
Below is a brief summary of the New York Times article. The link to the original is in the comments.
3 years ago it was a casting agency. Now it has $1 billion in drone contracts.
At the start of the full-scale war in February 2022, the company that became Fire Point was a casting agency for film and television productions, according to Ukrainian government registration documents.
Its legally listed owner, Yehor Skalyha, is the chief executive of another company, At Point, that scouts film locations. Fire Point’s chief technology officer, Iryna Terekh, previously ran a company that made concrete outdoor furniture.
Now, the company is one of the largest contractors for the Ukrainian military, with $1 billion in contracts this year, according to its executives.
The film scouting company led by Fire Point’s owner was credited with location work for a 2016 romantic comedy starring Mr. Zelensky, “Eight Best Dates.” It has also worked on dozens of other productions unrelated to the president’s former film career.
A newspaper, The Kyiv Independent, reported in August that Ukraine’s National Anticorruption Agency was examining ties between Fire Point and a businessman, Timur Mindich, who is a half owner of a television studio started by Mr. Zelenskyy.
The company has also been accused of receiving favorable treatment despite problems with the quality of its drones that critics say have made them less successful than other Ukrainian options in penetrating Russian air defenses.
The company’s contracts this year make up about 10 percent of Ukraine’s defense procurement spending. The government taps opened even though Fire Point avoided a legally mandated price negotiation during contracting, according to a government audit.
Maj. Yurii Kasyanov, a former drone unit commander, said in an interview that Fire Point had won contracts despite design flaws, while a model he designed, called the Spear, was ignored.
His drone was passed over, he said, despite his having demonstrated the model’s jamming-proof guidance system by exploding two drones in 2023 yards away from the flag flying over the Kremlin in Moscow.
Major Kasyanov said that he had testified as a witness in the anticorruption investigation related to Fire Point, and that afterward, the military had disbanded his drone unit.
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