Марія Бровінська Weapon 22 September 2025, 14:25

The architect who creates lethal weapons. Who is Irina Terek, who now manages the production of Flamingo missiles?

Fire Point, the manufacturer of Ukrainian Flamingo cruise missiles, became known in August of this year after announcing its missile production. The scandal surrounding the National Anti-Corruption Bureau’s investigation into Fire Point’s activities on suspicion of overstating the cost of components for the FP-1 UAV and the number of drones for the Defense Forces added to its media profile.

Recently, the company’s service manager Iryna Terek also went public and gave several comments and her first interview in this role. However, few people know that Iryna is an experienced entrepreneur with a significant background in design, architecture, and the production of concrete structures. We tell you who Iryna Terek is based on information from open sources.

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The architect who creates lethal weapons. Who is Irina Terek, who now manages the production of Flamingo missiles?

What is the NABU case regarding FirePoint about?

The National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) is conducting a much broader investigation into government officials, and as part of that process has issued requests to half a dozen Ukrainian domestic drone manufacturers (Fire Point is one of them).

The focus is on officials and whether they might, by colluding with companies producing unmanned systems, artificially inflate the cost of production.

In mid-August, NABU held a previously unreported, in-person meeting with representatives of various defense companies, according to several participants from several organizations. Organized by the defense industry association Tech Force in UA, NABU representatives assured defense companies that they were not trying to harm their businesses through the investigation.

Fire Point said it began receiving the vast majority of its Ukrainian government contracts after a competitive drone test in 2024 involving five domestic manufacturers (and not because of any alleged political connections).

The results of that drone test were documented in a 77-page report by the State Research Institute for Testing and Certification of Armaments and Military Equipment of the Ministry of Defense. It concluded that the Fire Point was the best drone in the exercise.

Fire Point CTO Iryna Terek said the company is in the midst of conducting an audit with Deloitte, and promised to publish the results this fall when it is completed.

Fire Point’s Terek denies ownership by Timur Mindich, an associate of President Volodymyr Zelensky, who KI believes may be the ultimate beneficiary and political connection for the company.

Who is Iryna Terek?

Iryna Terek, Chief Technical Officer of Fire Point

Fire Point service station is from Kharkiv. She calls her first serious job working in the mobile equipment network. «My first „serious“ job came when I was 14. My father hired me as a consultant at „Mobilochka“ through fraud. In the first month, I made a living selling Fly phones, coming up with an unusual positioning for them,» Iryna said earlier. The concrete business, according to her, began spontaneously. «It was my way of pushing myself off the bottom,» she said.

Iryna studied at the Kyiv National University of Civil Engineering and Architecture, but did not graduate. «I did not complete my studies. I left the university after the third year. I ran a business, tried to be a good mother of two children. It was quite difficult to balance all this together, so I decided that university could wait,» Iryna said in 2017.

In 2014, she became the founder of a new architectural concrete production company, TEREKH.group (Sira Rechovyna LLC), which later grew into a production and construction company specializing in the production of street furniture and the construction of modern street spaces.

Initially, her business was related to the production of architectural models for developers. However, after the Maidan, such services became irrelevant — and with the encouragement of her friend Iryna began to create structures from concrete. This is how the DWELL the SPACE agency appeared. «Imagine, after the first post on Instagram, a customer was found! Then another, and then another, and then the recommendations worked. At that time, we had almost no competitors,» Iryna shared earlier. By the way, her first client gave money and even brought his equipment, since he himself was interested in concrete. The main products at that time were concrete pots, washbasins, and landscape decoration elements.

Iryna also had a real estate agency — an individual entrepreneur with such a KVED was registered in the Kyiv region, however, its work is currently suspended. In the past, as listed in Opendatabot, she worked at Saga Development as a director.

Four businesses in the asset

Iryna Terek is currently a beneficiary of four companies.

Among them is Gray Matter LLC, also known as TEREKH.group. Iryna owns the company in half with Kharkiv businessman Oleg Markhai.

«TEREKH.group was created and developed during the Russian armed aggression against Ukraine from the very beginning and did not survive peacetime. During this time, we managed to gather the best specialists, partners, acquire the necessary knowledge and form a certain incredible ecosystem around us, and you know what? We never had to turn to the enemy for this,» Iryna said about her business. In parallel, Terekh launched the Frieden Ukraine charity foundation. In the spring, the volunteer kitchen within the foundation fed up to 1,000 people per day, and in May, the foundation transported and distributed 90 tons of humanitarian aid from the Romanian Red Cross, writes Forbes.

Pochupark LLC, which produces sporting goods (according to the State Registration of Economic Activities), is also half owned by Iryna — her other beneficiary is also Kharkiv resident Oleg Markhai.

Another company that Iryna currently owns is Falcon Technologies. Its former name, which changed in 2023, is SEMPERON FAST.

What is Stellar Jet?

Stellar Jet LLC is another of Iryna’s assets. «Stellar Jet is an innovative R&D bureau and experimental production. We cooperate with leading Ukrainian and international companies, creating unique technological solutions,» says the company’s description on the DOU website.

It is engaged in research and experimental development in the field of other natural and technical sciences, as well as the creation of military transport. In 2024, the company received over UAH 400 million in revenue and over UAH 300 million in profit.

The company is located in the capital.

The company currently has four open positions, all with reservations.

What about Fire Point?

Iryna headed Fire Point in 2023. When she was hired, she was tasked with producing 30 drones per month. This is a company founded in 2022 by a group of close friends — specialists from various fields — to produce relatively inexpensive long-range drones that would become the Ukrainian answer to the Russian-Iranian «Shaheeds». This is how the «deep strike» FP-1 (deep strike with a range of up to 1400 km) and FP-2 (front strike) appeared. It is also known that Fire Point has introduced new ballistic missiles FP-7 and FP-9.

The beneficiary of the company is currently listed as Yegor Skaliga.

Today, the company produces about 100 units per day, each of which costs about $55,000. Fire Point also already produces 50 Flamingo missiles per month.

Fire Point’s CTO says that over the three years of its existence, Fire Point has grown from 18 employees to 2,200. The company has its own distributed infrastructure for research, development, and production with a total area of 175,000 m².

In 2024, the company received over UAH 600 million in profit.

According to Iryna Terek, several more new products from Fire Point will be presented by the end of 2025. Among them are electronic warfare and air defense.