Kryvyi Rih in Dnipropetrovsk region will cut its budget spending this year because ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih, the Kryvyi Rih Iron Ore Works, and the Inhulets and Southern ore mining and processing plants are idle, Kryvyi Rih City Military Administration head Oleksandr Vilkul said on Facebook.
Russian strikes on Ukraine's mining and metals complex are also a serious blow to Kryvyi Rih and its budget, because that complex is the basis of the city, he said.
"ArcelorMittal is idle. Inhulets is idle. Southern is idle. The Kryvyi Rih Iron Ore Works is idle. Other large enterprises are working at a maximum of a quarter of their prewar output. Accordingly, the enterprises and contractors that support their work are also idle," he said.
ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih came under four massive Russian missile attacks in recent weeks and sustained very serious damage, five of its employees were killed and 17 others were wounded, he said.
"And in Kryvyi Rih the situation is actually worse than anywhere else, except, of course, the front line itself. The causes are Russian attacks and logistics, the impossibility of shipping products through ports," he said.
Because of lower tax revenue to the city budget, the city will suspend a number of important projects but will keep all critical systems running, he said.
"Next year the budget forecast is very bad. The goal is to keep schools, kindergartens, hospitals, water and heat running," Vilkul said.
He said other industrial cities have found themselves in a similar situation after Russia destroyed their plants, for example Zaporizhstal in Zaporizhia and the Kametstal steelworks in Kamianske.
"But, dear fellow countrymen, the only right decision is not to give up. I believe Kryvyi Rih will certainly hold out!" he said, adding that at the start of the full-scale invasion the city was in an even harder position, when Russian troops were 200 meters from its entrance, but were pushed back. The blowing up of the Kakhovka hydropower plant and temperatures as low as minus 20 C last winter were also major challenges for the city, he said.
"I hope that ArcelorMittal and other private enterprises will do everything possible to minimize the consequences of the forced stoppages and resume work as soon as the situation allows," he said.
Municipal utilities were told to do everything possible to help people find jobs, he said. "The Water Utility and Heat Networks alone have about 1,000 vacancies at the moment. The city tram, trolleybus and others will also be glad to take on the right specialists," Vilkul said.
