Destinus produces 300 missiles a month and plans to fully meet Ukraine’s and Europe’s missile engine needs in 2027

Dutch defence company Destinus, co-founded by Oleksandr Danyliuk, a former finance minister of Ukraine, has built more than 1,750 Ruta cruise missiles so far. Destinus CEO Mikhail Kokorich told Reuters this.

Destinus is currently producing almost 300 missiles a month, which is more than European countries produced in a whole year before Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. From next year, the company expects to meet Europe’s and Ukraine’s needs for cruise missile engines on its own.

Kokorich clarified that these are turbojet engines with about 1.5 kilonewtons of thrust, used in cruise missiles. According to him, such engines are already being produced in series, both for Destinus’s own missiles and for other manufacturers. Reuters notes that Ukraine’s missile sector is developing rapidly during the war, but propulsion systems remain a bottleneck.

Destinus has also begun production of the Ruta Block 2 missile, which Defender reported successfully tested in April. The missile has a 250 kg warhead and a range of more than 700 km. Unlike the Block 1 version, the new missile is designed to be stored, transported, and launched from a single container, simplifying logistics for large stockpiles.

President Volodymyr Zelensky said in October 2025 that Ukraine is using the Ruta Block 1 missile in combat operations.

Kokorich noted that Destinus does not use Chinese components, even though working with Chinese suppliers would make production cheaper and faster.

Russian entrepreneur Mikhail Kokorich founded Destinus in Switzerland and left Russia in the 2010s after the dispersal of an opposition rally. When the full-scale invasion began, he renounced his Russian citizenship, and his company started supplying Ukraine with drones and the Ruta missile. Oleksandr Danyliuk, Ukraine’s finance minister from 2016 to 2018, became a co-founder of the company, and he is now also Destinus’s president. The company’s headquarters are currently in the Netherlands.