Ukrainian woman designing a ballistic missile to put Moscow in reach

Kyiv — Ukraine's most important weapons manufacturer wears mismatched earrings and a black knit dress. "The good thing about being the boss is that you get to set the dress code," Iryna Terekh, the 34-year-old CEO of Fire Point, one of Ukraine's largest drone makers, told CBS News, grinning as she took a seat next to a model of one of the company's latest designs. With her high heels, bright smile, and entourage of millennial assistants and executives, Terekh stands out in her factory, where throngs of middle-aged men lug drone parts, wield power tools and chain-smoke cigarettes.

But she is hardly an exception in a country forced to reinvent itself since Russia launched its invasion in February 2022. "When the full-scale invasion started, a lot of people had to review what could be their personal impact," she said. "You never really know what kind of knowledge and what kind of experience could be transformed and pivoted into something new." Terekh's experience was in design and management.

Trained as an architect in the northern Ukrainian city of Irpin, she started building patios and outdoor furniture while also developing a successful high-performance concrete company. In the early months of 2022, Russian forces occupied Irpin, destroying roughly 70% of the city. "I understood how vulnerable we are to the complete barbarian behavior of our enemy," Terekh told CBS News.

"And if there are any competences that I could put on the table for the sake of fighting this war, then I have to do this." After escaping Russian occupation, Terekh began looking for a way to help. In the fall of 2022, Russia started attacking Ukrainian cities with Iranian-made, long-range Shahed exploding drones. It also started manufacturing its own versions, known as Gerans.

Terekh and Ukrainian businessman Denys Shtilerman, whom she had worked with designing outdoor urban spaces before the war, decided to build their own long-range attack drones to help Ukraine strike back. Shtilerman had a background in defense engineering, but most other initial members of the team, including Terekh, came from civilian backgrounds. Yehor Skalyha, their third co-founder, was a film producer.

At first, the company aimed to build 20 of its FP-1 drones per month. By 2024, they were regularly being used to strike Russian airfields, ammunition depots and oil refineries. But over the last two years, the company's ambitions, and its arsenal, have grown.