Ukraine’s Lima system helped divert two Russian Oreshnik missiles in May — NYT

The system, named Lima for obvious reasons, generates electromagnetic interference that confuses Russian drones and missiles, including by making their systems indicate that they are in Peru. Military personnel and representatives of Cascade Systems, the defense company that manufactures Lima, said the system had managed to divert even powerful hypersonic missiles.

Cascade Systems began developing its antennas nearly four years ago. The latest version, Lima Quant, debuted in Kyiv in August 2025.

Initially, the team tried to assign different false GPS locations to each major Ukrainian city, using places such as the Tower of London or Mount Everest — a technique known as spoofing. Eventually, they settled on Lima, which The New York Times described as “as good a city as any, and very far from Kyiv.”

According to Cascade Systems, Lima diverted more than 30 Russian cruise missiles and 10,000 drones in the first three months of 2026. The company’s biggest reported achievement came on May 24, when Russia launched two supersonic Oreshnik missiles toward Kyiv Oblast. One struck garages in Bila Tserkva , while the other is believed to have fallen in Russian-occupied territory in Donetsk Oblast.

The newspaper suggested that Russia may have suspended production and use of both Oreshnik missiles and Kinzhal aeroballistic missiles.

Russia first struck Ukraine with an Oreshnik missile without a warhead in November 2024, targeting the city of Dnipro. On Jan. 8, 2026, Russia struck Lviv Oblast with the same type of missile , damaging an infrastructure facility.

Initial reports on May 24, 2026, indicated that an Oreshnik missile had struck Bila Tserkva in Kyiv Oblast. Subsequent reports indicated that Russia had launched two Oreshnik missiles during its massive attack that day, with the second believed to have fallen in occupied Donetsk Oblast.