LONDON — Russia launched 614 air attack munitions into Ukraine overnight into Thursday, the air force in Kyiv reported, in what the country’s Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha called a “massive combined air strike” on targets around the country.
The air force said Russia launched 574 drones and 40 missiles in its overnight barrage, of which 546 drones and 31 missiles were intercepted or otherwise suppressed. Impacts were reported across 11 locations, the air force said.
“Contrary to all efforts to end the war, Russia undertook a massive combined air strike on Ukraine overnight,” Sybiha said in a post to X, saying that “civilian and energy infrastructure” were among the targets.
“One of the missiles struck a major American electronics manufacturer in our westernmost region, leading to serious damage and casualties,” the foreign minister added of the attack in Mukachevo, a city around 16 miles from the border with Hungary and and 25 miles from the border with Slovakia.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the choice of the target was “very telling.”
“It was an ordinary civilian enterprise, an American investment,” the president wrote on Telegram. “They produced such familiar household items as coffee machines. And this is also a target for the Russians.”
“It seems like there is no effort from the world to stop this war,” Zelenskyy added. “A response is needed to this. There is still no signal from Moscow that they are really going to go into meaningful negotiations and end this war. Pressure is needed. Strong sanctions, strong tariffs.”
Ukraine’s National Police said on social media that at least 15 people were injured in the Mukachevo attack. Sybiha said the site was “a fully civilian facility that has nothing to do with defense or the military.”
“This is not the first Russian attack on American businesses in Ukraine, after strikes on Boeing offices in Kyiv earlier this year and other attacks,” Sybiha said.
In the western city of Lviv, around 40 miles east of the Polish border, at least one person was killed and three people injured by Russian strikes, Mayor Andriy Sadovyi said on Telegram.
Russia’s latest attack was its largest since July 12, according to data published by Ukraine’s air force and analyzed by ABC News, and breaks with the trend so far in August of smaller-scale nightly barrages when compared to figures from June and July.
Wednesday night’s attack was only the fourth of the war to date in which the number of Russian drones launched exceeded 500, according to the Ukrainian air force’s data.
The strikes again prompted the scrambling of NATO aircraft in Poland. Swedish Air Force JAS 39 Gripen fighters were among the resources deployed, Poland’s Operational Command wrote in a post to X.
“In connection with the activity of long-range aviation of the Russian Federation, conducting strikes on Ukrainian territory — including with the use of hypersonic missiles — aircraft of the Polish Air Force and allied aviation are operating in Polish airspace,” the command wrote.
Around three hours later, the command reported a “reduction in the level of threat” and a return to “standard operational activities.”
Russia’s Defense Ministry, meanwhile, said its forces downed at least 71 Ukrainian drones overnight into Thursday.
Voronezh region Gov. Aleksandr Gusev reported on Telegram that an energy facility was damaged by a falling drone and that the attacks caused delays to rail services in the region.
The state-run Tass news agency cited Russia’s atomic energy agency, Rosenergoatom, as reporting that one unit at the Novovoronezh Nuclear Power Plant was temporarily disconnected from the grid.
In Rostov region, Gov. Yuri Slyusar said a fire broke out at an industrial enterprise after a drone attack. “So far, no one has been injured. Emergency services are on the scene,” Slyusar wrote.
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