Russian missile strikes have knocked out three of Ukraine’s largest steel plants, putting the country’s entire steel industry at risk, the Financial Times reported in an article examining how Russian attacks are battering Ukraine’s economy.
Russia struck the plants with ballistic missiles in early September, hitting facilities in the Zaporizhzhia and Dnipropetrovsk regions. Two belong to the metallurgical and mining company Metinvest, while the third is an ArcelorMittal factory. The strikes killed 17 workers.
“As of today, [Ukraine] doesn’t have a steel industry any more,” Oleksandr Vodoviz head of the CEO’s office at Metinvest, told FT. He said Russian forces “knew exactly where to hit,” targeting the plants’ blast furnaces.
Metinvest and ArcelorMittal said their plants together account for 90% of Ukraine’s steel production. Vodovyz said the facilities employ more than 15,000 people and that halting output could seriously damage other sectors of the economy, as well as tax revenue. “Right now we do not understand how long it will take to make the repairs, days, weeks, months or years,” he added.
Russia’s armed forces have been targeting Ukraine’s railway infrastructure, factories, warehouses, and shopping centers since the start of the full-scale war, and the intensity of the strikes has increased in recent months.
Ukrainian Prime Minister Serhii Koretskyi said the country could lose about $1.5 billion in tax revenue because of the Russian attacks.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said earlier that the country’s military budget deficit stands at 27 billion euros, and he has asked allies for additional funding. His request “surprised and unsettled” many European officials in August, The New York Times reported.
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