Zaporizhstal steel mill in Zaporizhia was attacked again by the Russian aggressor overnight Thursday: five missiles hit the same location where people were killed during a previous shelling attack, Verkhovna Rada member and member of the parliamentary subcommittee on industrial policy of the Committee on Economic Development Musa Magomedov wrote on his Facebook page.
"By spring, Ukraine may be left without a steel industry. This is a real prospect if the government does not take urgent action. Tonight, the Russians struck Zaporizhstal again. Five missiles hit the same location where people were killed during the previous shelling. After that attack, the mill was forced to halt operations. The consequences of these strikes are extremely serious, and whether Zaporizhstal will be able to resume operations remains a major question," the parliamentarian said.
According to him, the Russians are literally destroying Ukraine’s steel industry.
"Once again, at a committee meeting attended by the Cabinet of Ministers in full, I emphasized the critical situation in the mining and metals sector. On Friday, we will continue this discussion at a meeting with the prime minister. But meetings in themselves will not restore or save the plants. At the same time, Russian strikes are not the industry’s only problem. Ukrainian steelmaking is being squeezed from all sides today," Magomedov said.
He specified that the situation in the mining and metals sector is currently being exacerbated by the blockade of the ports of Greater Odesa: mining at the Southern Mining and Processing Plant (Pivdenny Mining) has halted, while output at other Kryvy Rih mining and processing plants could fall by about 30% in August compared with the 2025 average annual level. There is effectively no alternative to maritime logistics in the required volumes.
At the same time, Ukrzaliznytsia’s freight tariffs have increased by 30%. The share of rail transportation costs in steelmakers’ production costs has already risen two- to threefold. After several years of war, companies have virtually exhausted their internal reserves and cannot continue to absorb additional costs indefinitely.
The industry is also facing additional problems from the CBAM (Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism), which could cost Ukrainian producers an additional EUR 50-100 per tonne of steel, as well as new European quotas: about 1.05 million tonnes per year, approximately 60% less than Ukraine’s actual steel exports to the EU in 2025. According to available estimates, Ukraine risks losing about $1 billion in export revenues and more than UAH 17 billion in budget revenues solely due to the quota restrictions.
"We can hold as many meetings as we want and talk about supporting industry. But if logistics costs are rising at the same time, export opportunities are being closed off, new restrictions are being introduced, and companies are also coming under Russian strikes every day, soon there simply will be no one left to support. I have worked in this sector for many years and know from personal experience what happens to a company when it is constantly under pressure from multiple factors, which today are compounded by Russian strikes. Avdiivka Coke and Chemical Plant is one such example," the lawmaker wrote.
Magomedov said that steelmaking means jobs, exports, foreign-currency earnings, taxes and entire cities whose livelihoods depend on these enterprises. Therefore, the industry now needs a comprehensive set of concrete solutions from the government. By spring, it may turn out that there is nothing left to save, he concluded.
As acting Zaporizhstal CEO Taras Shevchenko previously reported, the steel mill is currently operating under extremely difficult conditions due to enemy shelling that has resulted in a prolonged shutdown of the enterprise.
"Recovery will not be simple or quick, but even now we are facing an even greater challenge: the blockade of the ports of Greater Odesa, which is not merely hitting logistics and exports. The logistics crisis is confronting us with an indisputable fact: without the ability to produce and sell their products, Ukrainian steelmakers in particular and domestic exporting producers as a whole will not be able to fulfill their role as the country’s economic rear — providing jobs, paying taxes, supporting foreign-currency inflows and financing the resilience of the state under wartime conditions," Shevchenko stressed.
Zaporizhstal is a joint venture of the Metinvest Group, whose principal shareholders are PrJSC System Capital Management (71.24%) and Smart Steel Limited (23.76%). Metinvest Holding LLC is the management company of the Metinvest Group.
