As fDi Intelligence notes, Metinvest “epitomises Ukrainian resistance to russian invasion”. The company has kept operating since the start of the full-scale war and, after losing about half of its steelmaking capacity following the occupation of Mariupol and the destruction of Azovstal and Ilyich Iron and Steel Works, refocused production on its remaining facilities.
The latest wave of russian attacks has brought a new challenge: ballistic missiles hit Zaporizhstal and Kamet Steel, causing the loss of employees’ lives and damaging equipment.
Attacks and operations
— Yuriy, as a corporate leader, how do you bounce back from a wave of attacks that killed 13 people, injured 40 and brought your steelworks at Zaporizhstal and Kamet Steel to a halt?
— Unfortunately, we have been witnessing these attacks for many years. We first came under russian fire at Azovstal in Mariupol in 2014–2015, when hostilities broke out in the Donbas region. That was the first time our factories were hit by military strikes, and we lost some of our employees.
Since 2022, that has become an almost everyday situation for us. We are talking about the most recent attacks on our facilities in Zaporizhzhia and Kamianske, but they have been hit several times over the last four and a half years. Zaporizhstal was hit almost every year. We also had hits at our iron ore mining facilities in Kryvyi Rih, where more than 11 people died in a single attack. And every time, we put as much effort as possible into restoring operations, resuming mining and making steel.
Unfortunately, the recent attacks were on a much larger scale than what we have seen over the last four and a half years. We are still clearing the debris and assessing the situation to understand how we can restart our facilities safely, both for our employees and for the cities around them.
— So has your whole steel production capacity stalled?
— Whenever you have a major attack like those we have had over the last two months, the mill basically stops. When the power is cut off or critical infrastructure is damaged, you have to stop the mill to avoid an environmental or industrial catastrophe and to avoid causing even more damage than the missile attack has done to the facilities. So even if not all the equipment is damaged, we have to stop the mill until we assess the extent of the damage and whether it is safe to restart.
— ArcelorMittal’s Kryvyi Rih steelworks were also damaged in the latest russian attacks. What is the overall situation of the steel industry in the country? Could production fall to near zero in the foreseeable future?
— Yes, if we look at the situation right now, all three major producers of steel in Ukraine have been hit recently. That is ArcelorMittal, Interpipe and Metinvest, and all of them were hit severely enough to stop production.
As we have heard from our colleagues at ArcelorMittal, they do not see a way to restore production in the present security situation. At least, that is the message we are receiving from them.
As I mentioned before, we, as well as probably Interpipe, are assessing the situation at our facilities to see what can be done to restart our works. But at the moment, it is still pretty unclear, and essentially, the whole of the Ukrainian steel industry is at a halt right now.
Conditions for the industry’s survival
— What kind of impact could these attacks have on the steel industry and other pillars of the Ukrainian economy?
— Before the war, the steel industry was responsible for almost 10% of Ukrainian GDP and one-third of Ukrainian exports. Of course, with the loss of some of the steel facilities in the Donbas region and then, in 2022, in Mariupol, these figures went down significantly. But even after that, the industry still contributed more than 7% of GDP and more than 20% of Ukraine’s exports.
So it is a significant pillar of the Ukrainian economy. In the past, its contribution was even bigger than that of agriculture. In the latest figures, it was comparable to agriculture. So the impact is very significant, both for the Ukrainian economy as a whole and for Ukrainian jobs.
— Does this change, in any way, the outlook on the war effort itself on both sides?
— It is not the industry that fights in the war. At the end of the day, it is the army. And of course, if you damage the industry and the economy, it does not mean that the army will feel the impact straight away.
So it is a very critical task for our government, our president and our allies in Europe and the United States to find ways to strengthen the war effort despite the damage done to the economy.
— Have you assessed the total damage, and do you have a realistic roadmap to restore at least some of the production that has been damaged?
— We have not yet carried out an overall assessment. As I mentioned, we are in the process of clearing the debris and assessing the damage to the infrastructure and facilities. And it is not the first time our facilities have been hit during the russian invasion, so a more accurate assessment will be possible after the war is over. That is when we can talk about the cost of rectifying the damage.
If we are talking about whether the steel industry can be restored, of course, anything can be rebuilt and restored. That is without a doubt. But for the Ukrainian steel industry to be reborn after this war, we need to understand whether we are part of the wider European market.
Lately, we have seen a lot of moves from the European Union and the European Commission that cast doubt on whether we should actually invest in the Ukrainian steel industry at all. One example is the quotas that have been introduced for Ukrainian steel entering the EU. Yet our agreements with the EU, including the Association Agreement and other agreements reached over recent years, in essence provided for free access to the European market. And despite the fact that Ukraine was exporting much less steel to the EU over the last few years than historically, we saw a decrease of more than 50% in our quotas for supplying steel to the EU.
That is a very strange step, in my view. If you want to support the country, it is better to allow its industry to operate and pay taxes. That income will strengthen the country’s defence capabilities and economy. This is more effective than providing grants or subsidised loans. Hopefully, our officials, together with their European colleagues, will be able to revisit this situation and rectify it.
— What would be your message for policymakers in Brussels?
— My message would be this: we are in the middle of a war. We live under constant shelling every day. If you do not give us hope, then there is no reason for the industry to exist or to be restored. That will kill one of the important pillars of the Ukrainian economy. It means that Ukraine will be much weaker when it becomes part of the European economy, which in turn will weaken Europe itself.
A much better approach is to see how the Ukrainian economy, including the steel industry, can be part of the common European market and the European economy and make it stronger rather than weaker.
I also think that, at this point in time, it is very important for people in Brussels to understand the circumstances in which we are operating. We have to operate with constant disruption to logistics and shortages of personnel. A lot of people have left the country. More than 8,500 of our employees have been called up into the army. We have unstable energy supplies and very high energy costs.
So, in a way, it is not fair and it is not correct to look at the Ukrainian steel industry, for example, in the same way as you would look at the steel industries of other countries supplying the EU. We have a situation that requires a special approach, more understanding and perhaps some instruments that would allow us to survive at this point in time and to come back with investments and growth in the future.
— Metinvest used to employ about 100,000 people before the war started. In 2025, that was down to about 30,000. What is the outlook now for those people, with production down to nearly zero?
— In fact, we have about 35,000 active employees at our facilities. Almost 8,500 of them are now serving in the defence forces of Ukraine but remain in our employment.
Our main goal right now is to preserve that workforce and see how we can keep those people so that we can restart our facilities in the future and come back to normal production.
— How important is this for cities like Zaporizhzhia, where the local economy is effectively built around the steelworks?
— In most Ukrainian cities with a steel industry, it can be said that the city was built around that industry. That includes Zaporizhzhia, where Zaporizhstal is the largest steel employer, although there are other steelmaking companies in the city. In Kamianske, our other steel mill is also the main employer in the city. And in Kryvyi Rih, the main employers are ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih and Metinvest’s iron ore mining and processing facilities.
So if you shut down the steelworks, you also shut down, to a large extent, the economies of those cities.
— How are you rethinking your international strategy in light of the current situation in Ukraine? Are you putting international projects on hold or trying to mitigate risk where you can?
— All of our international endeavours are linked to our Ukrainian production and Ukrainian resources, and we hope it will continue to be so.
At a certain point, this war will be over, and we will be back to growth and the development of new businesses. So we continue screening opportunities in Europe, but also in other regions close to Ukraine, in the Mediterranean and the Black Sea region. We are looking at what can be done to strengthen our supply model.
At the moment, our rolling mills in Europe and the UK operate on a standalone basis. But we already have plans and are taking steps to restore vertical integration with our Ukrainian facilities and go back to our previous model.
To cut a long story short, we are still very active. We believe that Europe, as well as the Mediterranean and Black Sea regions, are our key markets. We want to maintain our presence in these markets and are open to new opportunities.