Ukraine claims launch of home-made ‘Palyanytsia’ drone missile at Russia

Ukraine says it has deployed a locally-made drone-missile weapon system against Russia for the first time, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Saturday.
“The first and successful combat use of our new weapon took place today, a new class of weapon, the Ukrainian missile-drone Palyanytsia,” Zelenskyy said during a speech to celebrate the country’s Independence Day.
The word Palyanytsia refers to a type of rustic Ukrainian bread but it has also added symbolic significance because since the war started it has been used as a shibboleth to determine Ukrainians from Russians because of different pronunciation of the word.
“This is our new method of retaliation against the aggressor,” Zelenskyy said of the weapon.
Officials have long called for western defense companies to help them produce modern arms inside Ukraine, with the likes of Germany’s Rheinmetall and Norway’s Nammo already agreeing to do so on armored vehicles and ammunition.
The Ukrainian military hasn’t officially released details on the specs of the Palyanytsia, but the country’s Minister for Strategic Industries, basically Ukraine’s armaments production chief, Oleksandr Kamyshin, said Saturday that the rocket drone was a form of high-speed precision-targeted projectile.
“We have mortar drones, artillery drones, and now, we introduce a completely new class of weapon — rocket drones,” said Kamyshin on X. “The rocket drone ‘Palyanytsia’  was successfully used today, striking a military target in temporarily occupied territory.”
On Saturday, Russian authorities reported a massive explosion at an ammunition depot in the Voronezh region of country bordering Ukraine.