Engineers painted a picture of a flamingo on the side of the latest “Flamingo” cruise missile on Sunday at the factory of the Ukrainian arms company Fire Point.

This particular missile was funded by a $500,000 crowdfunding campaign by a Czech organization, Weapons to Ukraine.

Building on the success of its deep-strike drone, the FP-1, Fire Point is planning to more than double production of its cruise missiles.

The AP was given access to the factory on the condition the exact location is not named, due the risk of Russian attacks.

The missiles are in high demand among Ukrainian forces as Western missiles remain hard to access in sufficient quantities to debilitate Russian capabilities.

Fire Point has successfully tested Flamingo on the battlefield at least four times, company executives said.

In late August it was used to strike an FSB base in Armiansk in the occupied Crimean Peninsula.

This week, the missile was used to strike targets in the Russian city of Oryol.

The company did not provide its current production capacity, citing security concerns.

Production is going according to plans, company executives said, without elaborating on precise figures for security concerns.

Fire Point, which rose to prominence after initially being relatively unknown following the full-scale invasion, now reports $1 billion in revenue.

It is also constructing a factory in Denmark to manufacture essential rocket propellant.

In the meantime, the company is forging ahead with plans to expand.

It has launched an advisory board and named former US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo as a member on Nov. 12, executives told the AP.

However, public scrutiny remains intense during an ongoing corruption investigation.

Fire Point’s executives insist they have nothing to hide and are operating under strict martial law protocols, even commissioning an independent audit to appease investigators.

Critics, however, question the company’s opaque origins and the monopoly of its contracts with the Defense Ministry, and point to alleged links to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s notorious associate Tymur Mindich, who is implicated in a major corruption scandal.

“There are no specific news or updates on the investigation related to Fire Point,” said Iryna Terekh, Fire Point’s chief technology officer during an exclusive visit by AP to the factory where the missiles are assembled.

Terekh said Fire Point has commissioned a major international firm to conduct an independent audit of its pricing and production to quell concerns.

The investigation by anti-corruption organizations, launched a year ago, is still ongoing, she said.

“We will be waiting for results to come. We are completely cooperating with the NABU (National Anti-Corruption Bureau), providing them all the information requested," Terekh said.

“It’s a big honor for us,” Terekh said about Pompeo joining the board.

“We decided that since we are growing into a big international company, we have to ensure we are following the clearest and best corporate standards.”

Another three individuals will join the board.

But the company’s rapid rise has been marred by an investigation by Ukraine’s anti-corruption watchdogs.

Authorities are examining whether Fire Point inflated component prices or drone quantities in Defense Ministry contracts for its main weapon, the FP-1 drone, and are also scrutinizing potential links between the company and Mindich.

Anti-corruption agencies have said they were not investigating the Flamingo missile.

Lawmakers raised an issue with Fire Point because of its apparent monopoly over deep strike drones, its ability to garner lucrative contracts despite being relatively unknown, and obscurity over its ownership.

Its legally listed owner is Yehor Skalyha, who maintains connections to the entertainment industry, just like Mindich.

Anti-corruption watchdogs have not released the findings of their investigation.

Meanwhile, Jan Polak, a member of Weapons to Ukraine, explained that the half a million dollars that the Czechs gave for the missile was raised in just 2 days.

The same organization managed to fund the delivery of a Black Hawk helicopter to Ukraine’s military intelligence, Polak said.

“We saw how effective Ukrainians are with their campaign against the energetic missiles [energy-infrastructure attacks] and with their deep strike. And we wanted to help them do what's working the best right now," said Polak.

The current design of the Flamingo missile is a compilation of old Soviet weapons and new techniques.

Engines were sourced from old Soviet jets.

AP Video by Oleksii Yeroshenko