Ukrainian film agency turned drone maker now has contracts worth $1 billion

Once a casting agency for film and television, Fire Point pivoted to building drones after the Russia-Ukraine war broke out and now has defence contracts worth $1 billion

Necessity is the mother of all inventions. In corporate terms, it is also the mother of reinvention—a catalyst for profit-driven pivots. That rings true in war-torn Ukraine, where desperation has become the breeding ground for innovation. What began as improvised basement workshops assembling drones from off-the-shelf parts to resist Russian assaults has now evolved into a full-fledged defence-industrial boom.

 

Among the companies leading this transformation is Fire Point. Once a casting agency for film and television, registered as such in Ukrainian business records, it has now become one of the largest contractors supplying long-range strike drones to the Ukrainian military, according to a report by The New York Times.

 

 

From set decorator to defence contractor

 

At around 30 secret locations across Ukraine, Fire Point now manufactures long-range “exploding” drones built from inexpensive materials such as Styrofoam, plywood, plastic and racing-bike carbon fibre, the report said. The company has contracts worth about $1 billion for the year, placing it among the largest domestic defence suppliers.

 

One of its drone models, the FP-1, reportedly travels about 850 miles (1,370 km), carries a 130-pound warhead and is believed to have been used in attacks on Russian oil-refinery infrastructure.

 

Contracts, corruption claims and controversy

 

Despite its rapid rise, Fire Point has become a focal point for criticism, the report added. Citing independent auditors, it said the company bypassed legally mandated price-negotiation procedures. Although procurement officers estimated that the drones could be produced for less than the December 2024 unit price (around $58,000), contracts proceeded without formal negotiation, leading to roughly $16.7 million in additional costs.

 

Analysts and anti-corruption activists have warned that Ukraine’s legacy of opaque defence procurement could erode public trust as wartime funds flow to arms makers. The Public Anticorruption Council has called for a parliamentary probe into concerns over quality, pricing and potential political links.

 

Fire Point executives acknowledged being questioned in an anti-corruption inquiry but said the focus was on government officials, not the company. At least one Ukrainian media outlet reported that the National Anticorruption Agency is investigating possible hidden ownership ties between Fire Point and a businessman linked to the president’s former television studio.

 

Performance concerns and company response

 

Critics have also questioned the drones’ performance. Some said earlier versions produced by Fire Point underperformed against other Ukrainian models when facing Russian air defences. Fire Point responded that such issues have been resolved and that its FP-1 drone is “now reliably” hitting Russian refinery targets—an assertion yet to be independently verified.

 

Ukraine’s wartime industrial boom

 

The industrial rise of companies like Fire Point reflects a larger wartime transformation. According to Ukraine’s Ministry of Strategic Industries, 425 arms-manufacturing firms were established between 2022 and 2024. A separate initiative by the Ministry of Digital Transformation estimates that more than 2,000 Ukrainian firms now design or make weapons. In the long-range strike-drone segment alone, the Council of Defence Industries counts over 20 competing companies.

 

Ukraine’s adaptation of commercially available components for warfare has drawn global attention. Analysts say the scaling up of drone production has helped level the battlefield against Russia and spurred interest from foreign investors. Recently, Norway and Ukraine launched a €20 million fund to support angel investment in drone start-ups across both nations.

 

Balancing innovation and oversight

 

For Ukraine, the shift from relying on donated arms to cultivating domestic manufacturing has become urgent. Wartime secrecy shrouds much of the spending, but watchdogs warn that the combination of large contracts, secrecy and the country’s history of corruption makes oversight vital.

 

Russia-Ukraine war: the current situation

 

The war between Russia and Ukraine, now in its fourth year, continues with heavy fighting along multiple fronts. Russian forces have made incremental territorial gains, controlling an estimated 44,397 square miles (114,988 km²) of Ukrainian land as of early October 2025—about 2.8 per cent more than earlier this year.

 

Infrastructure and industrial targets remain under frequent assault. Ukraine reports that Russian drone and missile strikes in early October severely damaged gas-production and energy infrastructure, cutting output by up to 40 per cent in some regions.

 

Meanwhile, on the Russian side, Ukrainian long-range strikes have hit refineries and energy facilities, temporarily disabling about 17 per cent of Russia’s refining capacity by late September.

 

The humanitarian toll remains devastating. According to Russia Matters, as of October 22, Ukraine had more than 9.5 million displaced citizens—roughly 22 per cent of its pre-war population—while Russia reported about 805,000 internally displaced persons.