Russian Drone Attack Destroys Indian-Owned Pharma Plant in Ukraine’s Sumy

As the Russia-Ukraine war intensifies, a fierce attack has taken place on an Indian pharmaceutical company in Ukraine. Russian drones targeted the pharma plant belonging to the ‘Kusum Group’ in Sumy city. In this incident, one person died and several others were injured. Local authorities said the number of dead and injured could rise.According to details provided by officials, the main structure of the plant was almost completely destroyed in the attack. Scenes of thick smoke rising from the area hit by the drones have gone viral on social media. Preliminary estimates put the losses at around ₹400 crore.

Even though the war has been going on for more than two years, this plant had been continuing production without interruption. With the latest attack, operations have come to a complete halt.The Kusum Group is headed by Indian national Rajeev Gupta. The company started in 1994 as a distributor exporting Indian medicines to Ukraine and later began marketing its own brands. It established a manufacturing plant in Sumy city in 2009. The group sells more than 50 types of generic medicines in over nine countries, including Ukraine, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan.

For some time now, Russia has been continuously attacking Ukraine with cheap and fast Shahed drones. Intercepting these drones has become a challenge for Ukraine’s air defence systems.

Around the same time, Ukraine announced that it had successfully test-fired its domestically developed ‘FP-7’ ballistic missile for the first time this week. Its range of approximately 250 kilometres is noteworthy.