Ukraine’s Defense Ministry Procurement Officer Reveals Timeline for Sapsan Tactical Ballistic Missile Program After 2022

The Ministry of Defense of Ukraine first signed a state contract for the purchase of the 1KR1 Sapsan operational-tactical missile system in 2022, and in 2025 the system entered mass production and systemic use.

This was stated by Oleksandr Liev, Deputy Head of the Public Procurement Department of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine in 2022-2023.

According to him, in August 2022, as head of the Department of Military-Technical Policy, Development of Armaments and Military Equipment of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, he signed the first state contract with the KB Pivdenne Design Bureau for the purchase of the latest Ukrainian 1KR1 Sapsan operational-tactical missile system.

It is worth noting that the official index of the new Ukrainian missile system was not disclosed earlier, but this announcement revealed the full official name – 1KR1 Sapsan.

Acccording to the former Defense Ministry official, the first tests of the operational-tactical missile system took place in 2023, the first test applications against Russian targets in 2024, and in 2025 “the system entered systematic use.”

“I am sincerely pleased to be involved in real reinforcement of our Armed Forces. In 2023, we saw the result for the first time. In 2024, the enemy also felt this result. In 2025, the complex was put into systematic use, and entered mass production,” Liev said.

Timeline

The resumption of work on the Sapsan missile system in 2022 was planned back in 2021.

In March 2023, according to the Russian Ministry of Defense, they first encountered the use of the Ukrainian Sapsan operational-tactical missile system. Since then, the Russian command has periodically “shot down” these missiles in its reports. At the same time, Russia is making efforts to identify and destroy Ukrainian facilities that produce Sapsan components.

In August 2024, during the forum “Ukraine 2024. Independence” forum, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky said that Ukraine had successfully tested its first domestic ballistic missile. Two weeks earlier, the President had said that Ukraine was approaching the use of domestic ballistic missiles.

In April 2025, the then Minister for Strategic Industries of Ukraine Herman Smetanin, answering a clarifying question from journalists about the Long Neptune and domestic ballistic missiles, said that “we are actively using it every month, just like ballistic missiles.”

In May, the then head of the President’s Office, Andriy Yermak, said in an interview with the British newspaper The Times that Ukrainian defenders had used Sapsan missiles to destroy a Russian command post at a distance of almost 300 kilometers.

In early December 2025, the President of Ukraine stated: “Today, Ukraine is already using Neptunes, Long Neptunes, Palianytsi, Flamingos. We have also started using Sapsan, to be honest.”

It is known that as of the beginning of 2022, the development of an operational and tactical missile system (OTRS) for two types of missiles was underway: 900 mm in diameter with a range of 500 km for domestic use and 600 mm in diameter with a range of 280 km with the prospect of export. The warhead in both versions was supposed to be 500 kg.

In addition to the satellite and inertial navigation systems, four types of homing heads were developed for accurate targeting:

• electron-optical GNS
• infrared GNS
• radar GNS
• Combined GNS, which includes the capabilities of electron-optical and radar.

Read more about the history of Ukrainian projects of tactical missile systems in our special material.