The pharmaceutical manufacturing plant is part of the Kusum Group in Ukraine’s Sumy region, and had been targeted by Russian drones today, resulting in the deaths of one person and injuries to several others. The casualty count may rise and fall as inquiries go on, the main building of the facility has been nearly destroyed in the attack, officials say.
Images and videos of the site depict a large smoke gathering above the industrial site after the drone attack. The attack left a large portion of the plant affected and preliminary reports estimated losses to be around ₹400 crore.
Kusum Group has been active in Ukraine since 1994, when it started making Indian medicines available throughout the country. It is currently run by Indian national Rajeev Gupta. As of 2002 it ceased trading the products of other company and started to sell own medications.
The group was taking an early step towards manufacturing when it opened its first manufacturing units in India in 2007. It set up their pharmaceutical factory in Sumy in 2009 and followed with two additional manufacturing sites in India.
Kusum produces over 50 pharmaceutical products of which over 95% are generic medicines. It sells its products in over 9 countries, including Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Philippines. The group identifies itself as a Ukrainians with Indian heritage pharmaceutical company.
Sumy was still producing at its facility while the Russian-Ukrainian war was ongoing, but was heavily damaged in the most recent attack. The full impact on company’s production and operations is yet to be determined.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said it was a Russian attack and also expressed condolences to the relatives and friends of the victim who was killed. The strike came amid all the wider escalation of Russian drone assaults in Ukraine.
The ongoing threat for industrial and commercial ground facilities in areas of Ukraine near the Russian border was reiterated with the latest incident and will, most likely, become more obvious in the upcoming days the damages and casualties may be assessed.