Ukraine's prized steel industry left in ruins by Russian missile campaign

Ukraine's prized steel industry left in ruins by Russian missile campaign

9 hours ago
Vitaly Shevchenko

Chief Analyst, BBC Monitoring

Metinvest/Zaporizhstal
After one attack on the Zaporizhzhia steelworks, a blast furnace was restarted only for the site to be hit again hours later


Like thousands of other residents of Zaporizhzhia, Denys Maksyshko has spent years working for local steel factory Zaporizhstal. For generations, it has been the biggest and richest source of employment in this major Ukrainian city.

"Zaporizhstal is not just a big company, it's the heart of the city," he says.

Now, following a series of Russian missile strikes, this heart has stopped beating. The huge factory that employs 8,500 people shut down indefinitely after four waves of Russian attacks - two in August, and two in September.

"All the equipment has been almost completely destroyed. There are no windows left, and there are holes in the roofs. The blast furnaces have been almost completely ruined," Maksyshko complains.

Russia fired a total of 17 missiles at Zaporizhstal, according to Oleksandr Myronenko, chief operating officer of steelworks owner Metinvest. Eight workers were killed and 31 wounded.

"We're now clearing rubble and trying to plan recovery," Myronenko tells the BBC.

At the moment it is far from certain Zaporizhstal will ever start up again.
Metinvest/ZaporizhstalThe Zaporizhstal works has been hit by four waves of Russian attacks



Russia's persistent campaign of air strikes against Ukrainian metallurgical plants started in August. By now, all of them have been hit, some several times.

This is a key sector of the Ukrainian economy, and naturally an attractive target for Russia.

Before the start of the full-scale invasion in 2022, metallurgy and mining accounted for roughly 10% of Ukraine's GDP and a third of its exports. It provided employment for more than half a million people, and every 13th job in Ukraine was linked to the industry one way or another.

Because of the recent Russian attacks, it has all but ground to a halt and its contribution to Ukraine's GDP now "is probably close to zero", says Myronenko.

Until recently his company was Ukraine's biggest producer of steel and iron, but all its steelworks are for now out of action.

"Clearly, they're trying to stop Ukraine's economy and stop Ukraine from getting [export] money from abroad, from paying taxes and wages, from ensuring that cities live and people have jobs," says Myronenko. "Their efforts have been very effective so far."


The damage to the metals industry could have devastating consequences for Ukraine's economy and society.



Ukraine had 12 metallurgical plants before losing parts of its industrial heartland in the east shortly after the start of hostilities with Russia in 2014.

By 2018, there were just nine, and three years into the full-scale war in 2025 that number had fallen to six. Among those lost were the Azovstal and Illich plants in Mariupol, Ukraine's south-eastern city captured after a months-long Russian siege.

Among the steel-making cities caught up in Russia's recent missile campaign is President Volodymyr Zelensky's home city of Kryvyi Rih.

On 25 September, Ukraine's biggest steelworks, Arcelor Mittal Kryvyi Rih, announced it was unable to reopen after repeated attacks over five weeks, praising the bravery of its workers, five of whom had died.