Trump admin silent as Russia hits American businesses with ‘drones and missiles’ in Ukraine

As President Donald Trump and his administration have ratcheted up pressure on Ukraine to stop striking Russian refineries, citing harm to American consumers, they have remained silent on recent Russian strikes on US businesses in Ukraine.

Russia has escalated its attacks on facilities tied to American corporations – and civilian infrastructure in Ukraine writ large – over the past several months.

According to Andy Hunder, the President of the American Chamber of Commerce in Ukraine, Russian missiles and drones have damaged facilities belonging to some of America’s most notable brands, including Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, McDonalds and Oreo.

Although Russia has tried to deter successful American business in the past, it’s “nothing we’ve seen like over the last months,” Hunder told CNN.

“This is a direct hit with drones and missiles, and they keep hitting them. It’s sending a message that they’re targeting American business. We’re not seeing any response from the White House,” he said.

“We need this to stop because these are American interests, American money, American investors that are being hit and are being targeted,” he said.

Sergiy Chalyi/Reuters

When a Russia drone struck a Coca-Cola factory outside Kyiv in early September, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the attack was a “clear signal” to the US.

“Today, the Russians struck a Coca-Cola plant with a drone. Coca-Cola has become such an enemy to them that they’re burning it down with their Shaheds,” Zelensky said in his nightly video address on September 3, referring to “Iranian-designed ​drones.”

“This is a clear signal from Russia to America. The Russians cannot possibly be unaware that this is an American enterprise,” Zelensky added.

Later that month, the Russians used “an attack drone” to destroy a warehouse used by McDonald’s, Zelensky said in a post on X . McDonald’s Ukraine confirmed in a statement that “a warehouse operated by one of our logistics partners in the Kyiv region was damaged in a drone attack on 25 September.”

“An attack drone – against ordinary food products,” he wrote. “The Russians are constantly expanding their escalation operation: American and other businesses, data centers, internet providers – for Russia, ordinary life in and of itself is simply a target.”

McDonald’s Ukraine said that as a result of the damage, its restaurants are offering a reduced menu.

PepsiCo acknowledged in a statement in late August that a production facility in the Mykolaiv region was damaged, but there were no casualties.

There is not a consensus among the US businesses on the ground about how much they want to talk publicly about being hit “or disclose the fact that they’ve been targeted multiple times,” a former senior State Department official told CNN.

“Some businesses do want us to raise this,” Hunder echoed, but others “are treading very carefully.”

However, several Democratic US lawmakers have publicly called on the White House to do more to protect American businesses in Ukraine and to call out Moscow’s actions. Ukraine has highlighted the attacks as another reason to step up defense support, so that they can sufficiently shield American companies on the ground.

The Chamber of Commerce meets with visiting US lawmakers from both parties when they visit Kyiv, and Hunder told CNN they have asked them to raise the matter with the White House.

Roman Pilipey/AFP/Getty Images

President Donald Trump spoke out publicly when asked in August 2025 about a Russian strike on a US electronics factory, saying he told Russian President Vladimir Putin that he was “not happy about it.”

A White House official said Trump “wants the war to stop entirely so the senseless killing ends.”

“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.”

Still, the relative lack of condemnation on the strikes from the Trump administration stands in contrast to the admonishments to the Ukrainian government about striking Russian energy infrastructure. In February, CNN reported the administration had warned Kyiv that its strikes on a Russian Black Sea oil facility late last year had impacted US investments in Kazakhstan. In recent weeks, Trump has blamed Ukraine’s strikes on Russian diesel facilities for rising fuel prices, which have been driven up by the US-Iran war.

Last Friday, he announced a deal to waive sanctions and purchase diesel from Russia, in defiance of US law. The US has also threatened to restrict intel sharing and munitions for Ukraine if Kyiv does not stop those strikes, sources told CNN.

Hunder told CNN he has struggled to understand the administration’s relative silence on the matter, particularly given how much they’ve portrayed themselves as pro-US business.

“Any company, any business, wants to have some sort of protection. 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.

The former senior State Department official noted that “there’s an awful lot of people in ‘official Washington’ who think the only people who can talk about Ukraine are Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, and if it’s not one of the two of them, then we need to stay out of it.” As such, it is a challenge to even draw attention to the attacks on US businesses.

“The idea that you would get a rationale back” on why the US was silent about the attacks “is not something that people can expect,” they told CNN.

Hunder said the American Chamber of Commerce sent a message seeking a meeting with Witkoff and Kushner last month to update them on the state of US business in Ukraine, including the latest hits on American business.

“We didn’t get any response on that,” he said.

尽管唐纳德·特朗普总统及其政府加大了对乌克兰的压力，要求其停止袭击俄罗斯炼油厂，理由是这会损害美国消费者的利益，但他们对俄罗斯最近袭击乌克兰境内美国企业的事件却保持沉默。

在过去的几个月里，俄罗斯加大了对与美国公司有关的设施以及乌克兰境内广大民用基础设施的袭击力度。

据乌克兰美国商会主席安迪·亨德称，俄罗斯导弹和无人机破坏了美国一些最著名品牌的设施，包括可口可乐、百事可乐、麦当劳和奥利奥。

亨德告诉 CNN，虽然俄罗斯过去曾试图阻止美国企业取得成功，但“最近几个月发生的事情与我们以往所见的完全不同”。

“这是无人机和导弹的直接袭击，而且他们还在不断袭击。这传递出一个信息，那就是他们的目标是美国企业。我们没有看到白宫的任何回应，”他说。

他说：“我们需要制止这种行为，因为这些是美国利益、美国资金、美国投资者正遭受打击和攻击。”

Sergiy Chalyi/路透社

9月初，一架俄罗斯无人机袭击了基辅郊外的一家可口可乐工厂。乌克兰总统泽连斯基表示，这次袭击是对美国的“明确信号”。

“今天，俄罗斯人用无人机袭击了一家可口可乐工厂。可口可乐已经成为他们的眼中钉，他们甚至用他们的‘烈士’无人机把它烧毁了。”泽连斯基在9月3日晚间的视频讲话中说道，他指的是“伊朗设计的无人机”。

泽连斯基补充说：“这是俄罗斯向美国发出的明确信号。俄罗斯人不可能不知道这是美国的一项计划。”

当月晚些时候，俄罗斯人使用“攻击无人机”摧毁了麦当劳使用的一个仓库，泽连斯基在X网站上发帖称。麦当劳乌克兰公司在一份声明中证实，“9月25日，我们位于基辅地区的一家物流合作伙伴运营的仓库在一次无人机袭击中受损。”

他写道：“一架攻击型无人机——目标是普通的食品。俄罗斯人不断扩大其升级行动：美国和其他国家的企业、数据中心、互联网服务提供商——对俄罗斯来说，普通人的生活本身就是攻击目标。”

麦当劳乌克兰公司表示，由于受损情况，其餐厅将提供精简菜单。

百事公司在 8 月下旬的一份声明中承认，位于尼古拉耶夫地区的一家生产设施遭到破坏，但没有人员伤亡。

一位前国务院高级官员告诉 CNN，美国企业界对于公开谈论遭受攻击的程度，以及“是否愿意披露自己多次成为攻击目标”并没有达成共识。

“有些企业确实希望我们提出这个问题，”亨德附和道，但其他企业“则非常谨慎”。

然而，多位美国民主党议员已公开呼吁白宫采取更多措施保护在乌克兰的美国企业，并谴责莫斯科的行动。乌克兰方面则强调，这些袭击事件是加强国防支持的又一理由，以便更好地保护在乌克兰的美国公司。

美国商会与到访基辅的两党美国议员会面，亨德告诉 CNN，他们已要求议员们向白宫提出此事。

Roman Pilipey/AFP/Getty Images

2025 年 8 月，当被问及俄罗斯袭击美国电子工厂一事时，唐纳德·特朗普总统公开表示，他告诉俄罗斯总统弗拉基米尔·普京，他对此事“很不高兴”。

一位白宫官员表示，特朗普“希望战争彻底停止，从而结束这种毫无意义的杀戮”。

这位官员表示：“总统及其团队仍然致力于继续在结束俄罗斯和乌克兰之间的战争中发挥建设性作用，他仍然乐观地认为我们最终会达成和平协议。”该官员认为，美国是“世界上唯一一个”能够“在与双方对话、努力结束战争方面发挥建设性作用的国家”。

然而，特朗普政府对此次袭击的谴责相对较少，这与此前对乌克兰政府袭击俄罗斯能源基础设施的严厉警告形成了鲜明对比。今年2月，CNN报道称，美国政府曾警告基辅，其去年底对俄罗斯黑海石油设施的袭击影响了美国在哈萨克斯坦的投资。最近几周，特朗普指责乌克兰袭击俄罗斯柴油设施导致燃油价格上涨，而燃油价格上涨的根源在于美伊战争。

上周五，他宣布了一项协议，将放弃对俄罗斯的制裁并从俄罗斯购买柴油，此举公然违反了美国法律。消息人士告诉CNN，美国还威胁称，如果基辅不停止这些空袭，美国将限制向乌克兰提供情报和弹药。

Hunder告诉CNN，他很难理解政府对此事的相对沉默，尤其考虑到他们一直把自己描绘成亲美的商业机构。

他说：“任何公司、任何企业都希望得到某种程度的保护。你会期望你的政府站在你这边，与你并肩作战，尤其是在外国军队攻击美国公司的情况下。”

这位前国务院高级官员指出，“华盛顿官方圈子里很多人认为，只有史蒂夫·威特科夫和贾里德·库什纳才有资格谈论乌克兰问题，如果不是他们俩中的任何一个，我们就应该置身事外。” 因此，即使是引起人们对美国企业遭受袭击的关注，也并非易事。

他们告诉 CNN，“人们不能指望得到美国对这些袭击保持沉默的理由”。

Hunder表示，美国商会上个月曾致函Witkoff和Kushner，请求与他们会面，向他们通报美国企业在乌克兰的经营状况，包括美国企业最近遭受的打击。

他说：“我们没有收到任何回复。”