The Flamingos Will Fly Until the Last Russian Leaves: The Legacy of Dana Drábová

Dana Drábová — Chair of the State Office for Nuclear Safety for 25 years — passed away in October 2025. With her went the canonical phrase she had written every morning since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion: “The radiation situation in Ukraine is within normal limits.” But her idea lives on — in the form of the Flamingo DANA 1 cruise missiles.

In May 2024, Dana Drábová was a guest at the “Ukraine as a Task” discussion forum at the Václav Havel Library in Prague. Forum organiser Rostyslav Prokopyuk shared his impressions of the meeting: “First impression — extraordinary humanity, a smile, and great intellect.”

How the Canonical Phrase Was Born

At the forum, Prokopyuk asked Drábová when the phrase had first appeared. She recounted: before the full-scale invasion, she had been speaking with friends from the army headquarters who asked what would happen if Russian forces appeared near Chornobyl. Drábová could not even imagine such a scenario. But on 24 February 2022, Russian forces were already at Chornobyl.

From that point, Dana Drábová began publishing daily updates on Ukraine’s nuclear situation every morning. The canonical phrase first appeared in the early hours of 4 March 2022 — when Russian forces occupied the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant. Her words: “I will write this phrase until the last Russian leaves Ukraine.”

Flamingo Dana: Carrying Her Thoughts and Dreams Forward

After Dana Drábová’s death, the civic initiative “Gift for Putin” named the Flamingo missiles purchased for the Ukrainian Armed Forces after her. As Rostyslav Prokopyuk noted: “The Flamingos will fly until the last Russian leaves Ukraine” — a continuation of the thoughts and dreams of a remarkable Czech scientist and defender of Ukraine.

Video from the “Ukraine as a Task” forum, May 2024, Václav Havel Library.