Russia is talking of halting energy infrastructure attacks just as Ukraine unleashes a powerful new cruise missile.
KYIV — Donald Trump’s effort to cajole Russia’s Vladimir Putin into agreeing to a 30-day ceasefire was a flop, but the Kremlin does seem interested in pausing energy infrastructure attacks — at the same time that Ukraine has unleashed its devastating new Neptune cruise missile.
Ukraine successfully tested its first long-range cruise missile on Friday night, hitting an oil refinery in Tuapse, about 1,000 kilometers from Ukrainian-controlled territory in Russia’s Krasnodarskiy Kray region. It caused a fire that took three days to extinguish.
“After the attack of the Kyiv regime, on the night of March 14, a tank containing about 20,000 tons of gasoline caught fire at the oil depot. On the surface, the fire covered more than a thousand squares, the fire was assigned the fourth degree of danger,” Krasnodar Governor Veniamin Kondratiev said in a statement on Monday.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy issued a statement saying: “We’re happy with the results of Long Neptune.”
The refinery attack increases the danger for Russia’s oil industry — a crucial export earner keeping the economy afloat. Ukraine has been targeting Russian refineries, pipelines and pumping stations for months with its drones — leading to reports that it has knocked out about 10 percent of Russia’s refining capacity.
“In essence, Putin has quietly confirmed to Trump how much our deep strikes are hurting the Russian energy sector. This is our trump card,” Ukrainian MP Roman Lozinskyi said in a Facebook post on Tuesday.
Cruise missiles are more effective than the drones, which have been Ukraine’s go-to weapon for long-range attacks on Russia. Those drones fly slowly, and are more easily intercepted, while cruise missiles fly close to the speed of sound and are much more difficult to shoot down.
But they are not a miracle weapon.
“These cruise missiles alone cannot change the course of the war, even if there are many times more of them than now. We have the experience of Russia, which has launched many more different missiles at us, and we are functioning,” said Mykola Bielieskov, research fellow at the National Institute for Strategic Studies and senior analyst with the Kyiv-based Come Back Alive Initiatives Center NGO.
“But this does not mean that we do not need to develop strike potential — both in the context of strategic defense now and from the point of view of deterrence in the future,” Bielieskov added. “Missiles plus drones will carry out combined strikes.”
Long Neptune puts Kyiv into a very select club of cruise missile producers. These are weapons with ranges above 500 kilometers that carry powerful warheads able to do extensive damage to a target.
France and the United Kingdom have the Storm Shadow/SCALP, which has been donated to Ukraine, while Germany and Sweden have the Taurus, which has so far been withheld from Kyiv. The United States is talking about supplying its JASSM cruise missiles, but so far there are no reports of them arriving in Ukraine.
The Neptune isn’t the only such weapon. Last month, Zelenskyy showed off Ukraine’s turbojet-propelled Peklo missile-drone with a 700-kilometer range.
Missile development
Ukraine has been working on transforming the Neptune into a long-range missile for years.
The R-360 Neptune was originally designed as a shore-to-ship cruise missile carrying a 150-kilogram warhead and with a range of up to 300 kilometers; it was first shown by Ukraine in 2025. The design is based on the Soviet Kh-35 anti-ship missile but with enhanced range, targeting capabilities and electronics.
In the immediate aftermath of Russia’s full-scale invasion more than three years ago, Ukraine used the Neptune with devastating effect against Russia’s Black Sea Fleet. Kyiv says that Russia’s flagship, the cruiser Moskva, was sunk in 2022 after being hit with two Neptune missiles. The missiles have been used against other naval targets, as well as Russian air defenses along the Black Sea.
Ukraine worked on extending the Neptune’s range and turning it into a missile suitable for use in land attack. The result is the Neptune-MD, also called the Long Neptune. It uses the same ground-launcher as the R-360, but has a new guidance system and uses an infrared homing system in the final approach to its target, reported Ukraine’s Militarnyi website.
In recent months it has been fired at targets close to the border with Ukraine. Last week’s attack is the longest-range strike by a Neptune.
“A new Ukrainian missile, precise strike. The range is a thousand kilometers. Thank you to our Ukrainian developers, manufacturers and military. We continue to work to guarantee Ukrainian security,” Zelenskyy said in a statement.
“For me, messages about the success of Long Neptune look credible,” Bielieskov said. According to him, Ukraine changed Neptune’s control system, adapting the coastal guidance software for strikes on land targets. “And at the same time, they increased the range — this is not an impossible task, just a bigger missile and more fuel in it.”
Long Neptune is a cruise missile, with all its advantages and disadvantages. The advantages are the speed of production and less complexity compared to ballistic missiles. The disadvantages are that they fly much more slowly than ballistic missiles, carry smaller warheads and are easier to intercept, Bielieskov said.
Ukraine is now working to ramp up production. Zelenskyy said in November that about 100 missiles of various types had been produced.
Romania last year set up a partnership with Ukraine to build Neptunes.
“Funding from the EU would help increase production and give Ukraine greater freedom of action — regardless of the U.S.,” said Bielieskov.
