Swedish Ball Bearing Factory Hit in Russian Strike, Three Employees Killed

<p style="text-align: center;"><img src="/ueditor/php/upload/image/20230816/1692201366106748.png" title="1692201366106748.png" alt="3.png"/></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">The Swedish company SKF confirmed three of its employees died in the attack which Russia said damaged “Ukraine&#39;s military-industrial complex.”</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">An overnight&nbsp;Russian missile strike&nbsp;on the&nbsp;western Ukrainian city of Lutsk&nbsp;hit a Swedish ball bearing factory, the facility’s owners have confirmed.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">In a statement released on Tuesday afternoon,&nbsp;Sweden’s&nbsp;SKF&nbsp;company said three of its employees died in the attack.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">“We can confirm that there was an attack last night on the city of Lutsk in Ukraine, where we have a factory that was hit in the attack.&nbsp;</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">“We are very sad to also be able to confirm that three of our employees died in this attack,” Carl Bjernstam, an SKF spokesman, told AFP in a statement.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">The statement came around the same time&nbsp;Russia’s defense ministry said it had struck military-purpose industrial facilities in several sites across Ukraine overnight.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">“Ukraine&#39;s military-industrial complex suffered significant damage,” the ministry said in a statement, adding that it had carried out long-range precision strikes on “key” facilities.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">Ball bearings – small metal spheres usually made of high carbon chromium steel – are used in the manufacture of&nbsp;practically anything with moving parts.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">In the military sphere, this makes them crucial for almost all equipment from&nbsp;tanks, to planes to guidance systems.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">The overnight strikes also damaged a sports complex in Dnipro, central Ukraine, and a children&#39;s playground in Lviv, western Ukraine.&nbsp;</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">The Ukrainian air force said it destroyed 16 out of the 28 cruise missiles launched by Russia overnight.</span></p><p><br/></p>