In January 2026, Ukraine’s Armed Forces launched several “Flamingo” missiles at the Kapustin Yar range in Russia’s Astrakhan region, the General Staff said. A missile evaded air defenses and damaged hangars.
Because of the Flamingo strikes, Russia’s command was forced to evacuate personnel from the military unit based at the range that was launching “Oreshnik” missiles at Ukraine, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said in a statement. It said several air attacks on Kapustin Yar had been conducted since the start of the year and were successful.
“Some buildings sustained damage of varying severity, one of the hangars was significantly damaged, and part of the personnel was evacuated from the site,” the command wrote.
The General Staff did not specify when exactly the Flamingo strikes on the range near the village of Kapustin Yar in Russia’s Astrakhan region took place. It also did not say how many munitions were launched or how many got through Russian air defenses. The only detail published by the command was a satellite image of a group of buildings that were likely damaged by Flamingo. No imagery of the aftermath has been provided so far.
Possible coordinates of the Kapustin Yar range that may have been struck by Ukrainian missiles are 48.649409° N, 46.193986° E, according to Google Maps. The distance to Ukraine is about 600 km, meaning the missiles would have had to fly unimpeded over the front line, occupied territories, and the Rostov, Volgograd, and Astrakhan regions—and Russia’s air defenses appear not to have detected them.
This was not the first attack on the Kapustin Yar range. One strike took place in July 2024, five months before the first launch of a medium‑range ballistic “Oreshnik” missile that hit Dnipro. The range was attacked by drones that likely targeted the territory of the 4th State Central Interservice Proving Ground. A possible location of the strike - 48.649409,46.193986 - was the assembly and test building at Site No. 105, the OSINT channel “Kiberboroshno” reported. Another UAV attack took place on November 21, 2024, hitting Site No. 105 of military unit 15644.
In August 2025, the first information about Flamingo missiles and the first launch footage appeared online.
