Company behind half of Ukraine’s deep strikes eyes $760M deal with Kremlin-friendly UAE

Ukrainian defense contractor Fire Point is in talks to sell 30% of its shares to a state company of the United Arab Emirates for $760 million, BBC Ukraine reported on 30 December, citing unnamed sources. 

The UAE is a "trusted ally and key facilitator for the Kremlin and the Belarusian dictatorship," billing itself as a “mediator,” the Center for European Policy Analysis wrote in August. Abu Dhabi has done a great deal to help Russia’s economy stay afloat in the face of international sanctions. 

Fire Point makes more than half of Ukraine’s long-range attack drones being used against Russia. These attacks have been instrumental in destroying Russia's military capabilities and disrupting economic output, directly affecting the Kremlin's ability to wage war.

If a state friendly to Russia owns a third of this company, this may affect one of Ukraine's most potent tools of waging asymmetrical warfare against the invaders.

The deal has already been submitted for evaluation by the Ukrainian antimonopoly committee, according to the BBC. Fire Point revealed plans to sell 30% of its shares to an unnamed buyer last month. 

The sale was supposed to be closed within weeks of Fire Point’s announcement at its November press conference. Ukrainian consultancy Defense Express wrote that Fire Point may be trying to negotiate a better deal, while EDGE may be trying to apply time pressure by leaking the details.

The reasoning given was that the buyer’s country has low regulatory overhead for developing missiles. Fire Point is trying to break into this space with its Flamingo cruise missile, which Ukraine’s defense officials have called “experimental” for the time being. 

The BBC has now revealed that the prospective buyer of Fire Point’s shares is EDGE Group, the UAE’s state defense conglomerate. Throughout 2025, EDGE has been very public about its plans to invest in defense companies all over the world, from the US, to Europe, to South and Southeast Asia. 

While it has become a strategic lynchpin of Kyiv’s deep strike campaign, Fire Point is embroiled in multiple controversies in Ukraine.

Moscow and Abu Dhabi’s friendship

Russia and the UAE have a very close relationship. 

“Moscow relies on near-neighbors where it holds influence, along with sympathizers — high on the list of such enablers is the UAE,” CEPA wrote in its analysis. 

Russian leader Vladimir Putin and his people regularly proposed to meet American officials, including US President Donald Trump and his army secretary, Dan Driscoll, in Abu Dhabi. The UAE has helped Russia keep its economy afloat, in the face of record international sanctions. 

UAE President Mohammed bin Zayed regularly travels to Russia, meeting with Putin in August. The Russian president described the relationship between their countries as a “strategic partnership.” Trade between the two grew from $4 billion in 2021 to $11.5 billion in 2024. 

Reuters reported that this trade involves a lot of gold and diamonds, bypassing some of the obstacles that keep Russia from participating in global markets. 

UAE's trade with Belarus grew 47-fold, from $82.6 million in 2021 to $3.9 billion in 2024.

Emirati Crown Prince Khaled bin Mohammed bin Zayed in June went to Minsk to meet with the post-Soviet Eurasian Economic Union, agreeing to streamline trade within the bloc.

The UAE is also a key link in Russia's trade corridor with Africa and India. 

UAE’s big defense spender

EDGE has been announcing defense investments all through the past year and shows no signs of slowing down.

For example, the conglomerate is making a joint venture with US firm Anduril to make an AI-based, vertical take-off combat drone called the "Omen," to be built in Abu Dhabi.

The company also signed a $7 billion deal with Indonesia's defense contractor Republikorp, to create localized production and a modernization program for the Indonesian armed forces. This involves air defense missiles, infantry fighting vehicles, unmanned missile boats, cyber defense and small arms ammunition manufacturing.

EDGE already has a strategic relationship with India's Adani Group involving cybersecurity and drones, and with Megha Group on small arms. The UAE wants to expand these relationships, with a focus on defense and aerospace, and is scouting for more investment opportunities in India's armored vehicles and shipbuilding industries.

It also signed a memorandum of understanding with Vietnam's leading telecoms group Viettel, to collaborate on dual-use tech, including communications, AI cameras, and logistics, as well as manufacturing components in Vietnam. 

In 2023, EDGE acquired majority stakes in Estonia's Milrem Robotics, which develops unmanned ground vehicles and autonomous upgrade packages for the same, as well as Swiss unmanned copter maker Anavia.

The UAE has a relationship with Israel, whose Elbit Systems supplies avionics to the Emirati air force. Abu Dhabi also funded an Israeli naval vessel, and has worked with Israel to develop AI-driven military boats, among multiple other deals in the defense sector.

Ukraine’s fastest-growing defense company

Fire Point, evaluated at $2.5 billion, is one of if not the most successful recent defense contractor to burst onto Ukraine's market in the past several years. Over 50% of Ukraine’s deep strike weapons come from Fire Point, according to the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

Fire Point’s three top managers — chief designer Denys Shtillerman, director Yegor Skalyga and CTO Iryna Terekh — were in civilian trades before Russia’s full-scale invasion hit in February 2022. 

The company is best known for its FP series of drones, with the best-known model, the FP-1, being the most prolific deep strike weapon that Ukraine employs to attack targets inside Russian territory. 

Nothing about this drone is especially complicated, industry sources have told Euromaidan Press. Shtilerman himself has said that the drone's focus is not cutting edge technology, but affordability, scalability, and simple engineering. According to testimonials, the drone is “good enough” to get the job done often enough to be considered effective. 

By 2024, the company started receiving major orders from the government, leading to its meteoric growth.

It is not fully clear how much of this growth is based on merit and how much on personal connections. Multiple sources have told Euromaidan Press that getting to that size requires knowing someone in government to lobby on your behalf, although they were speaking in general terms and stopped short of saying anything about Fire Point in particular. 

Still, the company got in hot water, being probed by the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) over possible inflated weapon delivery projections and component costs. The company has denied wrongdoing. 

The company also attracted scrutiny as part of the Mindichgate controversy. Ihor Fursenko, an alleged money launderer for Timur Mindich’s scheme, was an employee at Fire Point, and reportedly helped Shtilerman’s family flee Russia, where they used to live. 

Skalyga owned the overwhelming majority of Fire Point’s shares until November, when he transferred ownership to Shtillerman. The company explained that Shtillerman’s role as beneficiary was deliberately concealed to prevent reprisals against his family members. 

After the scandals, the company has attempted to put on a more public-facing and trustworthy face by holding a public press conference, inviting journalists to its production facility, and inviting former US state secretary Mike Pompeo to join its hitherto-nonexistent advisory board. 

“Legally, Fire Point does not have an executive or supervisory board as management bodies,” Oleksandr Veherzhynskyi, a researcher with the Independent Anti-Corruption Commission, told Euromaidan Press. “This creates discrepancies between public statements and the legal state of affairs.”