Sumy/New Delhi: A pharmaceutical plant in Ukraine’s Sumy region, operated by India’s Kusum Group, was largely destroyed in a Russian drone attack, killing one person and injuring several others. Ukrainian officials said the plant’s main structure sustained extensive damage, with the toll of dead and injured likely to rise. Visuals from the site showed thick smoke billowing from the facility, with panic gripping the surrounding area at the time of the strike.
The plant belongs to the Kusum Group, an Indian company headed by Rajeev Gupta. The group began operations in 1994 as a distributor of Indian medicines to Ukraine, before launching its own branded products in 2002 and entering manufacturing with a plant in India in 2007. It established the Sumy facility in Ukraine in 2009, followed by two additional plants in India.
The Kusum Group currently manufactures more than 50 medicines, mostly generics, and sells them across over nine countries including Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and the Philippines. The company describes itself as a Ukrainian firm with Indian roots. The Sumy plant had continued operations throughout the Russia-Ukraine war, but the latest drone strike has caused losses estimated at a minimum of ₹400 crore.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky condemned the attack, offering condolences to the family of the person killed, and said Russian drones also struck the Pivnichnyi bridge in Kyiv and a communications facility in Dnipro, injuring six people in those attacks. He said Russia launched 135 attack drones overnight, including more than 50 jet-powered drones, and had used over 1,900 drones, 1,700 aerial bombs and 25 missiles against Ukraine during the week.
Ukrainian air defences have struggled to intercept the fast-moving, low-cost drones Russia has been deploying in large numbers in recent months. Separately, Ukraine announced it had used its domestically developed FP-7 ballistic missile in combat for the first time this week, with a stated range of approximately 250 kilometres.