The Ukrainian company Fire Point is considered an outsider in the confusing arms market. Nevertheless, it has achieved undeniable successes in a short time. A meeting with his boss.
July 27, 2026, 9:16 p.mJuly 27, 2026, 9:16 p.m
Olga NEDBAEVA, London / afp
translation
This text was written by our colleagues from French-speaking Switzerland and we translated it for you.
She travels to major international arms trade fairs, negotiates with industry representatives and takes part in discussions about the rearmament of Europe. 34-year-old Iryna Terekh, a trained architect, leads Fire Point. The company is now one of the most important players in Ukraine’s capabilities for long-range attacks against Russia.
Iryna Terekh meets us away from the Halls of the air show taking place this week in Farnborough, UK, in an office in London’s upscale Mayfair district.
A month ago, Fire Point performed at the Eurosatory in France, where she showed a looped image of a burning refinery near Moscow. This was hit by one of their own drones. The performance received a lot of attention. The company then decided not to have a stand in Great Britain.
A month after a high-profile appearance at Eurosatory in France, where Fire Point showed a looped image of a burning refinery near Moscow that had been hit by one of its drones, the company decided not to have a stand in the UK. “The next performance can’t be any less good,” says Iryna Terekh. She wants to do even better at the next presentation.
Iryna Terekh, CEO of Fire Point, a Ukrainian company specializing in drones and missiles.Image: montage watson
Without visible make-up, she appears reserved and charismatic at the same time. She speaks in Ukrainian and English with the confidence of a woman who is now used to such appearances: for months she has been defending Fire Point against controversies and allegations of corruption that have accompanied the company’s rapid rise.
The company was accused of receiving preferential treatment from the state. In addition, his public commissions caused controversy. Fire Point counters that the Ukrainian authorities were desperately looking for manufacturers who could supply weapons in 2022, 2023 and 2024. The company accepts controls, audits and transparency.
Iryna Terekh, the reserved boss of Fire Point
The woman in her mid-thirties grew up in Kharkiv in eastern Ukraine. From her childhood home in the Saltivka neighborhood, which is now one of the areas most affected by Russian bombing, she could see Belgorod on the other side of the Russian border.
She has lived in Kiev for a long time and has “children” about whom she says nothing more “for security reasons.” She never worked as an architect. Instead, she ran several companies in the construction industry. She enjoyed seeing ideas take shape.
When Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, her friend Denys Shtilerman suggested that she help him set up his business. According to your account, sketched out the first ideas for the eventual FP-1 drone on a napkin in her favorite restaurant at the end of 2022. The prototype was assembled in a garage in spring 2023. She says that seven devices were then manufactured within three weeks. “We slept for three hours and took turns.” In response to criticism of “garage engineering” or a lack of professionalism, Iryna Terekh replies that she is “very proud” of it.
“The Ukrainian army today relies largely on volunteers,” she emphasizes. The products must therefore be “simple, clear and reproducible”. “If you’re the smartest person in a room, you have to go out and find someone else that makes you feel like an amateur,” she says. In doing so, she consciously takes on the role of an outsider, while her career and skills are regularly questioned in Ukraine. Then she laughs loudly:
“Whether this should be taken seriously or not is not something we have to judge, but rather Vladimir Putin.”
Fire Point produces thousands of drones
Despite the controversy, Fire Point is considered by numerous Western experts and industry representatives we spoke with to be one of the key players behind Ukraine’s long-range strikes against Russia. The company boss does not want to provide any information about sales. However, she says production is now several thousand drones per month. The previously mentioned numbers of 3,000 drones and 30 Flamingo rockets per month also continued to rise.
She admits that the controversies surrounding her company had concrete consequences: Some projects with foreign partners were delayed by several months due to additional compliance checks. These procedures have now been completed, she says.
Their goal now is to help build a comprehensive ballistic missile defense coalition – “something that doesn’t yet exist in the world.” Fire Point hopes to play a key role in this. Finally she explains:
«We have all seen American Patriot systems being remotely deactivated due to a political decision. We don’t want to end up in a situation where such a political decision is made for the skies over Paris.”