Luxembourg-based steel giant ArcelorMittal announced on Friday that it is indefinitely suspending operations at its Ukrainian subsidiary, ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih, after a relentless Russian bombardment made continued production impossible. The company said it expects to record a non-cash impairment charge of around $1 billion, one of the largest single losses a Western firm has taken since the full-scale invasion began.
The plant in south-central Ukraine — about 400 kilometres south-east of Kyiv — was the country's biggest operational steelworks, producing long steel rods and beams for construction alongside iron ore. The shutdown removes a cornerstone of Ukraine's industrial base and marks a new escalation in Moscow's campaign against the country's economic infrastructure.
Four strikes in five weeks made the plant impossible to run
The closure decision followed the fourth missile strike on the facility in five weeks. The most recent attack, on September 21, killed five employees and injured 17, one of whom remained in critical condition. A company letter informing Ukrainian officials of the closure said the facility had been formally requesting state protection at least six times during the war.
"It is with deep regret that we have concluded that we are no longer able to safely operate ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih," said Mauro Longobardo, chief executive of the subsidiary. The company said the whole plant, including the mine, would be closed, with efforts focused on preserving infrastructure so production could one day resume.
The strikes caused extensive damage to production facilities. A mid-August missile attack damaged the plant's main energy and blast furnace installations, while a subsequent September strike targeted an ironmaking complex. Specialist teams had been assessing the damage and the work needed to resume operations, but repairs became a moot point as attacks continued.
The plant had already been operating at reduced capacity since 2022, navigating energy shortages and logistics disruptions. Executives acknowledged in recent earnings calls that the Ukrainian business had been burning through cash since the war started, though it had recently managed to break even before interest, taxes and depreciation.
A pillar of Ukraine's economy under sustained attack
ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih joins two other major Ukrainian steel producers, Metinvest and Interpipe, in suspending production. The metallurgy sector contributed 7 per cent of Ukraine's gross domestic product last year and employs tens of thousands of people; steel accounts for roughly 15 per cent of the country's exports.
Russia has carried out at least nine separate ballistic missile attacks on the plants since last August, costing steelmakers close to $100 million. The damage compounds earlier losses: in 2022, Russian forces occupied and destroyed the Azovstal and Illich plants in Mariupol, wiping out 40 per cent of the country's steel production capacity in a single campaign.
Oleksandr Kalenkov, president of Ukraine's steel association Ukrmetallurgprom, called for international assistance, warning that without it the industry would have to halt production until the end of the war — "which could last for many years" — and doubted the workforce could be preserved in the meantime.
In Europe, MEP Karin Karlsbro is urging the European Union to remove Ukraine from its tariff regime, introduced in June, which has squeezed the country's exporters. The sector has warned Prime Minister Serhii Koretskyi that the situation has reached breaking point, proposing a mechanism similar to the Ukraine Energy Support Fund that would pool partner financing to help affected companies procure critical equipment from Europe.
Moscow's widening war on civilian life
The steel shutdown is the latest sign of Russia's intensifying effort to hollow out Ukraine's economy and civilian life with long-range strikes. In recent months Moscow has hit businesses, logistics networks, Black Sea port facilities and civilian infrastructure across the country. The United Nations reported at least 200 civilian deaths in September alone.
On the same day ArcelorMittal announced its closure, a Russian drone strike on central Kyiv killed a 14-year-old boy — an attack President Volodymyr Zelensky described as "absolutely savage and sickening". A separate strike killed one person at a postal facility in the Black Sea port of Odesa, while a medical clinic in the south-eastern city of Zaporizhzhia was hit while people were inside. Russia denies deliberately targeting civilians.
President Zelensky has warned that Moscow is expanding its target list to everyday civilian life, turning energy, industry and public services into front lines of their own.
Conclusion
The closure of ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih is more than a corporate loss — it is a deliberate strike at the economic foundations of the Ukrainian state. For four years the plant's workers kept furnaces running through blackouts and bombardments, a symbol of industrial defiance. That defiance has now been forced into hibernation, with the plant preserved in the hope that peace will one day return to Kryvyi Rih. Until then, Russia's economic war grinds on, targeting the factories, ports and power lines that sustain Ukraine's ability to resist.
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