With both sides in the Russia-Ukraine war preparing for further fighting, Ukraine was test-launching a new long-range cruise missile, Zelenskyy said. Ukraine’s president announced the huge missile, known as Flamingo, could strike targets as far as 3,000km (1,864 miles) away. “The missile has undergone successful tests. It is currently our most successful missile,” Zelenskyy told reporters. Mass production could begin by February, he added.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Thursday that large Russian attacks in various parts of Ukraine showed Moscow was avoiding negotiations about ending the more than three-year-old war. The latest offensive included 574 drones and 40 missiles, said Ukraine’s president, and was one of the largest yet.

A missile strike on the US-owned electronics firm Flex in Ukraine’s far-west Zakarpattia region was a “telling” indicator of Russian intentions in peace initiatives led by Donald Trump, Zelenskyy said. “Now the signals from Russia are simply, to be honest, indecent. They are trying to back away from the need to hold meetings. They don’t want to end the war. They carry on with massive strikes.”

“We believe [the Flex attack] was a deliberate strike precisely on US property here in Ukraine, on American investment,” Zelenskyy said. “A very telling strike … at the very time when the world waits for a clear answer from the Russians on their move in talks to bring an end to the war.” Nineteen people were injured in the attack. Zelenskyy said both sides were preparing for further fighting, citing Russian troop build-ups and Ukraine’s own preparations including the Flamingo missile rollout.

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