A resident walks along a street as a firefighter works at the site of the Russian missile strike, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in the village of Sknyliv on the outskirts of Lviv, Ukraine on August 21, 2025.
| Photo Credit: Reuters
Russia launched one of its biggest aerial attacks this year at Ukraine, firing 574 drones and 40 missiles overnight, the Ukrainian Air Force said Thursday.
The attack mostly targeted western regions of the country, it said. The strikes killed at least one person and injured 15 others, according to officials.
Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said Russia struck a “major American electronics manufacturer” in western Ukraine. He provided no further details.
Western parts of Ukraine are far from the battlefield’s front line in the east and south of the country. Much of the military aid provided by Ukraine’s Western allies is believed to be transported and stored there.
It was Russia’s third largest aerial attack this year in terms of the number of drones fired and the eighth-largest in terms of missiles, according to official figures.
The strikes occurred during a renewed U.S.-led effort to reach a peace settlement in the three-year war following Russia’s invasion of its neighbor.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy condemned the attack, saying it was carried out “as if nothing were changing at all.”
Moscow has shown no signs of pursuing meaningful negotiations to end the war and urged the international community to respond with stronger pressure, including tougher sanctions and tariffs, he said.
Russia “wasted several cruise missiles against an American business,” he said, noting it was a regular civilian enterprise producing domestic utilities, such as coffee machines. “And that too became a target for Russia. Very telling.”
Earlier, Mr. Zelenskyy said Ukraine will hold intensive meetings to understand what kind of security guarantees its allies are willing to provide after receiving signals that the United States would back reinvigorated discussions seeking an end to war.
The details are being hammered out among national security advisers and military officials and Mr. Zelenskyy thinks they will take clearer shape within 10 days. He then expects to be ready to hold direct talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin for the first time since the full-scale invasion.
Kyiv still does not have clarity over what kind of support it can expect from allies. A coalition of more than 30 countries have in principle pledged to contribute to security guarantees but talks came to a standstill when the U.S. remained ambivalent about its role.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said working on security arrangements in Ukraine without Moscow’s involvement would not work, according to state news agency RIA Novosti.
“We cannot agree with the fact that it is now proposed to resolve collective security issues without the Russian Federation. This will not work. We have already explained more than once that Russia does not overstate its interests, but we will ensure our legitimate interests firmly and harshly,” Lavrov said at a news conference Wednesday
Recent positive signals from Trump suggesting the U.S. will support “Article 5-like” security guarantees and Ukraine’s hopes to join the European Union have reinvigorated those discussions, Zelenskyy said.
“Today we have a positive signal from America, from President Trump, from his team, that they will be participants in the security guarantees for Ukraine. And this opens up the possibility for other countries,” he added. “Now the general staff of key countries have already started talking about what they are ready for. And some countries that were not there will probably appear now.”
Published – August 21, 2025 01:23 pm IST
