Zaporizhstal halted production after the strike on August 11, and the plant was then hit three more times — on August 27, September 12, and September 17.
According to Metinvest, the plant was hit by 17 ballistic missiles in just the past month, and the latest strike, involving two missiles, hit production workshops as well as engineering and railway infrastructure.
Kametstal in Kamianske, Dnipropetrovsk region, was hit by a ballistic missile strike on September 5. The damage affected sintering and blast-furnace production, as well as energy and transport infrastructure, after which the plant completely halted all production processes; five people were killed and four more were injured.
ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih endured two major missile attacks in a month. After the first strike in mid-August, energy facilities and blast-furnace production were damaged, two people were killed, and 13 employees of the company and contractors were injured; after a repeat strike in September, which hit the area of Blast Furnace Complex No. 1, the company stopped primary steel production and reduced the rest to a minimum or shut it down, and two more employees of contractor organizations were killed.
These three enterprises employ more than 15,000 people in total. Before the full-scale war, the mining and metallurgical sector, together with related industries, accounted for more than 10% of Ukraine’s GDP, and by the end of 2024 its contribution had fallen to 7.2%; meanwhile, metallurgical products still accounted for about 15% of the country’s merchandise exports.
In January–August 2026, Ukrainian enterprises produced 3.6 million tons of metal products, 61% of which were exported. About 80% of metal product exports in the first half of the year went to European Union countries, and the Ukrainian government estimates possible tax revenue losses from the latest attacks at more than $1.5 billion; this amount refers to the total damage from strikes on economic infrastructure, not just the shutdown of metallurgical plants.
Head of the office of Metinvest CEO Oleksandr Vodoviz said that Ukraine has effectively been left without a steel industry. The timeline for resuming operations at Kametstal is unknown, and ArcelorMittal still cannot estimate how long repairs at ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih will take.
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