Russia-Ukraine war: Indian billionaire Lakshmi Mittal's steel plant in Kyiv hit by Moscow's missile

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, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a social media post, "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 continued to intensify the military offensive in the nearly four-and-a-half-year-old war. On Sunday (August 17), Kyiv launched hundreds of drones across Moscow, killing at least six people in what was described as one of Ukraine's largest aerial attacks of the war.

Ukraine has stepped up its attacks on Russian infrastructure this year, with long-range missiles and swarms of drones targeting military industries and energy facilities, news agency AP reported. Kyiv has also increasingly targeted large Wildberries warehouses, destroying merchandise worth billions of dollars belonging to the Russian e-commerce giant. The attacks have brought the impact of the war closer to ordinary Russians nearly four and a half years after Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Russia's Defence Ministry said its forces intercepted and destroyed 822 Ukrainian drones overnight, while Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said roughly 600 drones were detected heading towards the capital, with nearly a third of them brought down over the Moscow region itself.

The escalation amid the intensifying conflict comes alongside parallel efforts by the European Union to step up pressure on Moscow through a new sanctions package.

EU plans far-reaching sanctions on Russia

Europan Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas recently told a German newspaper that the bloc was planning to significantly expand sanctions against Russia in the coming months, Reuters reported.

Kallas said, "EU sanctions have already cost Russia dearly, depriving Russia's war machine of over €1 trillion ($1.16 trillion) and for autumn I am putting forward the most far-reaching sanctions listings since the start of the war."

She added, "Once adopted, they would immediately raise the total number of sanctioned Russian entities by a third. The pressure must keep growing until Moscow ends its war."

With both Russia and Ukraine intensifying long-range attacks and the EU preparing tougher sanctions, the latest escalation underscores the growing international pressure on Moscow, even as there appears to be little sign of an immediate end to the conflict.

(with agency inputs)