In the Ukrainian and Russian segments of Telegram, a real information battle has erupted over the past few days around the FP-5 "Flamingo" cruise missiles. The trigger was a quote from Irina Terekh, CEO of the defense company Fire Point, in which she mentioned household components and the "Epicentr" building-materials hypermarkets in the context of reducing the cost of long-range weapons. Clickbait pages and propaganda channels instantly ripped the phrase out of context and packaged it into a sensational narrative: supposedly, Ukrainian missiles "hold together on door hinges from Epicentr," and therefore Russian strikes on the shopping centers of this chain (including recent hits in Odesa) are allegedly a "search for engine hardware." In reality, this is a classic example of how wartime professional humor turns into a viral fake about "penny" missile production.
A joke that went viral
The mechanics of the fake are simple and frighteningly effective. A single metaphor, uttered in an interview with a specialized outlet, goes in a matter of hours from an "interesting detail" to a "sensational exposé." Some channels present Terekh's words as a direct admission: that strategic missile production is supplied from building-materials hypermarkets, and that the cover of a combat engine holds together on ordinary door hinges. Others add a "logical" link: since the parts are bought at "Epicentr," strikes on these shopping centers are supposedly a targeted hunt for components. None of these versions withstands contact with the original source, yet it is precisely they that generate the maximum reach, because they hit two pain points at once — both skepticism toward Ukrainian weapons and the justification for strikes on civilian objects.
What Irina Terekh actually said
Fact-checking shows: the quote is partially true, but its interpretation is fundamentally wrong. Irina Terekh did indeed give a comment to the specialized outlet dev.ua, where she mentioned household components. However, she never claimed that "Epicentr" is an official supply base for strategic missile production, let alone that the cover of a combat engine holds together on door hinges. The essence of her comment was different: the company's head was explaining the philosophy of creating Ukrainian long-range weapons. To reduce cost and speed up production, Fire Point engineers use civilian, readily available market components — but strictly where this is absolutely safe and does not affect aerodynamics or ballistic characteristics. The phrase about "hinges from Epicentr" was a metaphor for the availability of parts "here and now" as opposed to the months-long bureaucracy of orders from the US, not a technical description of the missile's design.
"Flamingo": not sticks, but composites and robots
The attempt to link strikes on civilian shopping centers with "making missiles from hardware" is a manipulation that does not withstand technical analysis. The FP-5 "Flamingo" is a highly complex, high-tech long-range cruise missile (up to 3,000 km) capable of reaching speeds of up to 950 km/h. Fire Point achieved a technological breakthrough by introducing a composite wing, which reduced the production cycle of the component from seven days to two hours. The missiles are equipped with advanced turbojet engines, carbon winding, and are assembled on robotic lines. Such systems cannot be "cobbled together" from hardware-store materials. Moreover, according to industry data, the company is building a large plant for the production of solid rocket fuel worth about 150 million euros in Denmark — on NATO territory — to fully protect production from Russian shelling. This is not the behavior of a company whose weapons "hold together on hinges," but a strategy for protecting critical production.
Contradictory data
Here it is important to honestly examine two areas of inconsistency. The first is the interpretation of the quote itself. Supporters of the fake read Terekh's words literally: parts for missiles are supposedly purchased at "Epicentr" as an official supplier. Supporters of fact-checking (and the logic of the statement itself) argue that this is a metaphor for the availability of commercial components within the COTS concept, not a description of the combat engine's supply chain. Both sides refer to the same interview but draw opposite conclusions — and it is precisely this gap that gave rise to the viral narrative. The second area of contradiction concerns the technological base of the missile itself. The Ukrainian side and specialized outlets emphasize Fire Point's breakthrough solutions — the composite wing, the new turbojet engine, robotic assembly. At the same time, the WSJ, citing its own sources, claims that the "Flamingo" is largely based on Soviet technologies. These two versions are not necessarily mutually exclusive — modern missiles are often built on the basis of proven design solutions, modernized for new materials and electronics — but in the public sphere they are presented as opposites, which further amplifies the information noise.
COTS: why "civilian" parts are a global standard
The irony of the situation is that the use of household and commercial components in combat equipment is not a Ukrainian exoticism, but a global trend known in the West as the COTS (Commercial Off-The-Shelf) concept. Ukraine is not unique here: from chips in consumer electronics to GPS trackers for cars — civilian solutions have long been and are widely used in modern weapons. While Western defense giants spend years coordinating the delivery of every bolt through multi-tier contracts, Ukrainian engineers consciously use any available commercial solutions so that weapons reach the front in a continuous stream. This is not "penny missile production," but a flexible engineering strategy that allows scaling production in wartime conditions.
Why they strike shopping centers
The answer to the question of why the Russian army strikes "Epicentr" hypermarkets — in Kharkiv, Odesa, and other cities — lies in the realm of military tactics, not missile technology. This is an element of "infrastructure terror" tactics and the deliberate destruction of major logistics hubs that sustain the life of cities and the functioning of the rear. These strikes have nothing to do with the mythical "search for engine hardware." "Epicentr" remains a civilian shopping center, and its destruction is yet another war crime. The fake about "hinges from Epicentr" is dangerous precisely because it tries to give these strikes a pseudo-rational justification and simultaneously humiliate Ukrainian defense production. Fact-checking, however, brings the situation back to reality: the "Flamingo" is composites, turbojet engines, and robotic lines, not door hinges from a building-materials hypermarket.
