Ukraine’s steel industry faces severe pressure from lost capacity and attacks on plants and energy infrastructure, but the available evidence does not show that the entire sector has collapsed or establish that collapse is inevitable. A Fortune listing dated October 12, 2026, summarizes Metinvest CEO Yuriy Ryzhenkov as warning that the company faces a period as tough as anything since Russia’s full-scale invasion. The listing is not the full interview, so it cannot substantiate details beyond that summary.
What Ryzhenkov’s warning establishes
The Fortune Europe-section listing identifies Kamal Ahmed as the author of an October 12, 2026, interview with Ryzhenkov, chief executive of Metinvest Group. Its summary says the company faces a period as tough as anything since Russia’s full-scale invasion. That is evidence of the executive’s reported assessment of Metinvest’s situation—not proof that Ukrainian steelmaking as a whole is about to stop.
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The listing is not a transcript. The headline’s phrase “on the brink of collapse” is a headline framing; without the full interview, it should not be treated as a verified verbatim answer or as a measured forecast for the national industry.
How the pressure on steelmaking has developed
Capacity lost after Mariupol’s occupation
In an October 2026 account of a separate interview, Metinvest said it had lost about half of its steelmaking capacity after Mariupol was occupied and Azovstal and Ilyich Iron and Steel Works were destroyed. The group said it redirected production to its remaining facilities. This is a rounded company-reported figure about Metinvest, not an independently audited statistic for Ukraine’s entire steel sector.
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Attacks and suspensions in 2026
Metinvest’s September 2026 account of a separate interview with chief operating officer Oleksandr Myronenko said attacks in August and September forced Kamet Steel and Zaporizhstal to suspend operations. Metinvest noted that the interview had been recorded before a further attack on Zaporizhstal on September 12, making the account a dated snapshot rather than a statement of current operating status.
Zaporizhstal’s August production report said an August 11 attack damaged energy facilities and infrastructure at the company’s enterprises in Zaporizhzhia. It also reported another attack on the plant, which was already shut down, on August 27. The report documents damage and attacks at a named company; it does not establish the status of every plant in Ukraine.
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What the available production figure can—and cannot—show
The World Steel Association reported 6.5 million tonnes of crude steel production for Russia, other CIS countries, and Ukraine combined in January 2026, down 8.6% year over year. Because this figure groups Ukraine with other producers, it cannot be used as Ukraine’s standalone output or as a direct measure of Ukrainian steelmaking’s decline.
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The figures describe different things: Metinvest’s estimate concerns its own lost capacity after events in Mariupol; plant reports describe attacks and suspensions at specific facilities in 2026; and the World Steel Association number covers a regional grouping for one month. Combining them into a single national trend would overstate what they establish.
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The evidence supports a serious-risk picture: Metinvest reports substantial capacity loss, and company and plant accounts describe attacks, infrastructure damage, and suspended operations at named facilities. It does not establish that all Ukrainian steelmaking has ceased, quantify current national output, or prove that sector-wide collapse is inevitable. Operational conditions can change after strikes, repairs, or other disruptions, so the dated company reports should not be read as a live inventory of plant status.
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