The strike on Flex Ltd.’s Mukachevo facility came just hours after Moscow rejected President Trump’s latest peace overtures, sending a clear message about Russia’s willingness to target American business interests during diplomatic negotiations.

Russia targets American business

Just hours before the missiles hit, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov had dismissed European peacekeeping proposals as “foreign intervention.”

Moscow’s choice to strike a big US-owned facility during active peace discussions sends an unmistakable message: Russia believes it can attack American assets without derailing Trump’s negotiation efforts.

Company safety protocols brought employees to safety when air raid sirens sounded, preventing what could have been a catastrophic loss of life. Twelve people were injured, though, with two in serious condition.

The strike hit a facility producing electronics components for global brands including Nike, Google, Microsoft, and Lenovo, disrupting supply chains that extend far beyond Ukraine’s borders.

“This was not only an attack on Ukraine. It was an attack on American business,” said Andy Hunder, president of the American Chamber of Commerce in Ukraine, who traveled to the strike site Thursday morning.

Calculated message to Washington

With this attack, itself part of a massive nighttime air raid against Ukrainian cities, Moscow appears to be testing Trump’s resolve while negotiations were still forming.

“Russia is not seeking peace; it is attacking American interests and values,” Hunder wrote on Facebook, calling on Trump to “stand with American business in Ukraine.”

Ukrainian business leaders were even more direct. “I hope Trump, when he wakes up, will already be aware of this morning’s greeting from his Alaskan buddy,” wrote Oleksandr Sokolovskyi, head of the Ukrainian Association of Light Industry Enterprises, referencing the American President’s meeting with Putin in Alaska less than a week before the devastating strike.

“Russia is destroying and humiliating US businesses in Ukraine, targeting companies that invest and trade on the US stock markets,” Hunder noted, framing the strike as broader economic warfare against American interests.

Putin tests Trump’s resolve

The strike puts Trump’s negotiation approach under pressure. The president has suggested he could end the war through direct talks with Putin. Moscow’s willingness to hit US-owned assets during peace discussions reveals Russia’s actual negotiating position.

This attack represents a challenge to American credibility: will Washington tolerate attacks on US business while pursuing diplomatic solutions?

The attack also demonstrates why stronger air defense systems matter, as better missile shields don’t just save Ukrainian lives—they also protect American investments and send a message that targeting Western assets carries real costs.

Key facts about the attack:

• Russia targeted the world’s third-largest contract electronics manufacturer’s Ukrainian plant
• The facility employs over 2,600 people and serves major US brands
• Flex produces components for Nike, Google, Microsoft, and Lenovo
• Attack occurred during active Trump-led peace negotiations
• Russia used Kalibr missiles launched from strategic bombers
• 12 people were injured, two seriously, but adherence to safety protocols prevented deaths

A massive fire is still burning at the US-owned Flex plant in Mukachevo in Ukraine’s Zakarpattia Oblast after Russia’s 21 August missile strike, with 21 people confirmed injured, Ukraine’s Emergency Service reported. The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) says Moscow hit the factory to discourage foreign investment and had prepared the assault for weeks before the Alaska summit between Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump.

Among the targets of the 12 August attack was Mukachevo in Zakarpattia Oblast, where a missile hit the US-owned electronics manufacturer Flex. The strike caused a massive fire and injured employees. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stressed that Flex was a civilian enterprise producing household goods such as coffee machines.

ISW: Strike aimed at discouraging foreign investment

ISW reported on 21 August that Russia likely struck the Flex plant “to discourage the United States and Ukraine’s European allies from investing in Ukraine or opening businesses within Ukraine.” The think tank emphasized that the targeting of a US-owned enterprise in Ukraine’s far west, near the borders with Hungary, Slovakia, and Poland, sent a clear signal.

Prepared in advance of the Alaska summit

ISW assessed that Russia had prepared for this assault for several weeks. In the lead-up to the 15 August Alaska summit between Putin and Trump, Russian forces launched smaller strike packages, which ISW said were designed to portray Moscow as a good-faith negotiator while conserving munitions.

The think tank noted that Russia had not launched Kalibr cruise missiles since 21 July or Kinzhal missiles since 4 August, suggesting these were deliberately withheld to be used in greater numbers during the 20–21 August strike.

Firefighting efforts continue in Mukachevo

By the morning of 22 August, Ukraine’s Emergency Service reported that the fire in Mukachevo had not yet been extinguished. More than 50 firefighters, 15 units of equipment, and two railway fire trains remain deployed to contain the blaze.