Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s Chief of Staff Andriy Yermak assured The Times of London that Operation Spider’s Web—Ukraine’s June 1 drone attacks on strategic air bases across Russia—was not a single event, not a “one-off,” as The Times put it in its June 23 interview with him. Bragging that Ukraine’s ballistic missile production is advancing, Yermak teased that “we are definitely good at surprising the world. That’s not a bad habit. It’s better that you see something and not that I speak of it. Let’s leave it at that.”
Yermak was interviewed by The Times’s Washington, D.C. correspondent, George Grylls, “earlier this month.” Yermak, the former TV producer for Zelenskyy’s comedy show before they moved their act to the Ukrainian Presidency, headed up a Ukrainian delegation to D.C. only two days after the “Spider’s Web” attack on one of Russia’s strategic nuclear triad. “The Green Cardinal” (a nickname won because of his power within the Zelenskyy regime and the green fatigues he always wears) insisted that “nothing will manage to drive a wedge between us and the Americans partners,” despite his failure to get a meeting with J.D. Vance on that trip.
Ukraine has begun mass production of a new, short-range ballistic missile called the Sapsan, or Peregrine Falcon, which it first used in combat in May, The Times reported. It carries double the payload of explosives of the U.S. ATACAMS (480kg worth), and can travel at more than Mach 5 speed. Kiev is playing coy about its range, keeping that classified, but there is speculation that it has a range of 310 miles, the British daily wrote.
“Asked if the Sapsan could hit Moscow, about 300 miles from the Ukrainian border, Yermak … said: ‘Things are moving very well. I think we will be able to surprise our enemies on many occasions,’” Grylls wrote.
