Aftermath of a Russian drone attack on Coca-Cola factory in Kyiv region.
CNN reported in February that the administration had warned Kyiv that strikes on a Russian Black Sea oil facility late last year had affected US investments in Kazakhstan. Last Friday, Trump announced a deal to waive sanctions and purchase diesel from Russia, despite US law.
The attacks have hit factories and warehouses, with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy describing a drone strike on a Coca-Cola plant near Kyiv in early September as a “clear signal” to Washington. Andy Hunder, president of the American Chamber of Commerce in Ukraine, said Russian missiles and drones had damaged facilities belonging to some of the biggest American brands. He told CNN that while Russia had targeted US businesses before, the scale of the attacks in recent months was unprecedented. A White House official said Trump wanted the war to end and that his administration remained committed to efforts to secure peace. “The president and his team remain committed to continuing to play a constructive role in ending the war between Russia and Ukraine, and he remains optimistic that we’ll ultimately get a peace deal done,” the official said, arguing that the US is “the only country in the world” that can “play a constructive role in speaking to both sides in working towards bringing the war to an end. In recent weeks, the US has also threatened to restrict intelligence sharing and ammunition supplies to Ukraine if it continues attacking Russian energy infrastructure, according to sources cited by CNN. Hunder said he struggled to understand the administration’s relative silence on attacks against American companies, particularly given its stated support for US businesses.
Russian attacks on American businesses operating in Ukraine have damaged facilities linked to Coca-Cola, McDonald’s and PepsiCo in recent months, raising questions about why the Donald Trump administration has been more vocal in criticising Ukrainian strikes on Russian energy infrastructure than in condemning attacks on US companies.
You would expect your government to stand up in your corner and fight the fight with you, especially if it’s a foreign military that is attacking the American companies,” he said. “Any company, any business, wants to have some sort of protection.