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Russia has targeted Ukraine’s cities and hit a US-owned consumer electronics factory in the largest combined drone and missile attack in more than a month, only five days after Donald Trump’s meeting with Vladimir Putin in Alaska.
Kyiv’s air force on Thursday said Moscow had launched 574 drones and 40 cruise and ballistic missiles overnight, targeting five cities in western Ukraine as well as the industrial city of Zaporizhzhia near the southern front line.
A missile strike on Mukachevo, a city 30km from the Hungarian border, struck a large US-owned electronics manufacturing plant, Ukraine’s government said on Thursday. Officials said 19 people were injured, and some 600 employees were on shift but had taken shelter after an air raid warning.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the Russians had hit “a regular civilian business, supported by American investment, producing everyday items like coffee machines”.
Zelenskyy said: “We believe this was a deliberate strike specifically on American-owned property here in Ukraine, on American investments . . . right as the world awaits a clear answer from the Russians, an answer on negotiations to end the war.”
Andy Hunder, head of the American Chamber of Commerce in Ukraine, said the site hit belonged to Texas-based Flex and urged Trump to show Putin that “the United States protects its own”.
“Russia continues to destroy and humiliate US businesses in Ukraine, targeting companies that invest and trade on the US stock markets,” Hunder said in a Facebook post. “Russia is not only destroying Ukraine — it is undermining US leadership, values and US business.”
Flex on Thursday said the company was still assessing the missile strike’s damage to the factory, which “does not produce, supply or support” any defence-related components. Six employees remained hospitalised, it added.
“At this time, our primary goal is to ensure the safety and welfare of our employees,” the company said. “Flex manufacturing operations in Mukachevo are strictly focused on civilian consumer manufacturing.”
Yulia Svyrydenko, prime minister, said “the enemy decided to ‘liberate’ Ukraine from coffee machines”.
Residents of Kyiv were also woken during the night when air defences engaged Russian drones flying over the capital city.
One person died in Lviv, near the Polish border, as a result of the strike, mayor Andriy Sadovyi said on Telegram.
Trump has previously argued that the presence of US investors in Ukraine is a form of security guarantee for Kyiv, although a third of the 700 companies that are members of the American Chamber of Commerce in Ukraine have had employees killed in Russian attacks since 2022, according to Hunder.
Among the places hit or overrun by Russian forces in Ukraine in the past were facilities belonging to Boeing, Coca-Cola and the agriculture group Cargill.
Andriy Sybiha, Ukraine’s foreign minister, said the overnight strikes showed the need to strengthen the country’s air defences, while Andriy Yermak, Zelenskyy’s chief of staff, wrote on Telegram: “Putin talks about peace, but does not take a single step to achieve it . . . Instead of real solutions, we get attacks on civilians.”
The overnight aerial bombardment marks a significant escalation by the Kremlin after weeks of more limited attacks.
The round of diplomacy triggered by US envoy Steve Witkoff’s August 8 trip to Moscow, which culminated in the Alaska meeting, coincided with a sharp drop in attacks targeting the Ukrainian capital, a sign that Russia may have been trying to avoid Trump’s disapproval ahead of the meeting between the US and Russian presidents.
The drone and missile attacks never fully stopped, however. Several ballistic missiles targeted the central Ukrainian city of Kremenchuk on Tuesday, while fighting continued all over the frontline.
Despite Trump’s efforts to seal a quick peace deal and Europe’s push to provide security guarantees for Ukraine, Moscow has indicated it will not deviate from its hardline demands since the Alaska summit.
Sergei Lavrov, Russia’s foreign minister, on Thursday said a proposal for European states to send peacekeeping troops to Ukraine would be “absolutely unacceptable for Russia” and accused Kyiv of trying to undermine Trump’s peace efforts.
Lavrov said Putin would only meet Zelenskyy if “all the issues that need to be examined at the highest level are properly prepared” and cast doubt on whether the Ukrainian president had the authority to sign any peace deal.
Additional reporting by Steff Chávez in Washington and Christopher Miller
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