Over $100 million in losses reported after Russia’s weekend missile strikes on Kyiv businesses
Editor's note: This article has been updated to include comments from the coffee chain Idealist, who clarified that its production facilities had been heavily damaged, not fully destroyed.
Russian missile attacks on Kyiv over the weekend destroyed the warehouse of one of Ukraine's largest pharmaceutical distributors and heavily damaged the production facility of a popular coffee chain.
A strike on Oct. 25 destroyed a 29,000-square-meter central warehouse belonging to pharmaceutical company Optima-Pharm, Chief Financial Officer Artem Suprun told Forbes Ukraine. The attack — the second on the company this year — also severely damaged its office, Suprun said.
"Fortunately, there were no casualties — the estimated losses exceeded $100 million," he said.
Idealist Coffee said on Facebook on Oct. 25 that the same attack had hit its production facilities. The company told the Kyiv Independent that it is still assessing the full extent of the damage and could not answer specific questions about the attack at this time.
The Kyiv Independent reached out to Optima-Pharm, but did not receive a response by the time of publication.
The attacks come amid an escalation in Russian strikes on Ukraine in recent weeks, as Moscow seeks once again to cripple the country's energy system ahead of winter. This year, Russia has also begun targeting Ukraine's gas production facilities, something it largely avoided in previous winter campaigns.
Russia launched three attacks on Kyiv last week, firing a combination of missiles and drones at the city that killed at least five people and injured dozens. In the Oct. 25 attack, Russia targeted multiple districts in the city with ballistic missiles, killing at least three and injuring over 30.
Strikes across the country last week were no less deadly, including a drone attack that hit a kindergarten in the city of Kharkiv.
Ukrainian businesses have frequently been either direct targets or collateral victims of Russian attacks since the start of the full-scale invasion, each attack dealing further blows to Ukraine's strained wartime economy. By the end of last year, an estimated 500 large and medium-sized businesses had been affected, according to the Kyiv School of Economics.
But unlike homeowners whose properties are damaged in attacks, businesses have not been eligible for state compensation and usually have to rely on their own resources to rebuild, though efforts have recently been made to extend assistance.
Idealist Coffee, founded in 2019 by Serhiy Koretsky, the current head of state oil and gas giant Naftogaz, supplies Ukraine’s state railway operator, Ukrzaliznytsia. It has several popular cafes around Kyiv and in the central train station.
Optima-Pharm reported revenue of Hr 69 billion ($1.6 billion) in 2024, putting it among Ukraine's top 15 largest companies by revenue, according to Forbes Ukraine, which tracks corporate data. The company collaborates with over 500 Ukrainian and international manufacturers, according to its LinkedIn page.
Dominic Culverwell
