Hours after Ukraine launched more than 800 drones at Russia, a Russian missile strike hit Indian-origin billionaire Lakshmi Mittal’s ArcelorMittal mining and metallurgical complex in Kryvyi Rih, Ukraine’s largest integrated steel facility.
Reuters, citing a statement from ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih on Telegram, reported that the attack targeted the steel plant in President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s hometown. The attack reportedly came in response to a Ukrainian drone barrage, killing two people and injuring 14 workers.
The company said, “As a result of the attack, key production facilities in the power generation and blast furnace sectors have been damaged, and the plant’s production processes have been partially halted.”
The strike was part of a broader overnight Russian assault across Ukraine, as Moscow and Kyiv intensified their long-range attacks. Several people were killed in attacks elsewhere, while strikes in Kyiv sparked fires and left civilians injured. Both sides have been deploying hundreds of drones against energy facilities, industrial sites and military targets well beyond the front lines.
Russia-Ukraine war intensifies
Following the overnight attack by Russia, the Ukrainian President, in a social media post, said, “Emergency services are working at the sites of the Russian strikes that took place this morning and last night. In Kyiv, the fires were quickly extinguished, and emergency work is now ongoing. The Russians injured six people in the city and the region. Kremenchuk and Kryvyi Rih were also hit with ballistic missiles. Wherever the Russians can reach with their ballistic missiles, they strike civilian infrastructure.”
He added, “This week alone, 13 regions came under attack. The enemy launched more than 1,550 attack drones, nearly 1,560 guided aerial bombs, and 62 missiles at our cities and communities, most of them ballistic missiles of various types.”
The remarks came as the two sides continue to intensify the military offensive in the nearly five-year-old war. On Sunday (17 August), Kyiv launched hundreds of drones across Moscow, killing at least six people in what is being termed as one of Kyiv’s largest aerial attacks of the war.
This is a developing story. More details awaited.
