Russian strikes halt Ukraine steelmaker, kill seven in Kyiv

Steelmaker ArcelorMittal has it is shutting production at Ukraine's largest steel plant, underscoring the growing economic toll of Russia's airstrikes that on Friday killed seven people in Kyiv including a 14-year-old boy and injured 58.

The shutdown is yet another blow to Ukraine's once-mighty steel sector, which previously accounted for 15 per cent of the country's exports but has come under pressure from Russian attacks and restrictions from the EU, its top trading partner.

Russia intensified air strikes across Ukraine in recent months using ballistic missiles and jet-powered drones that have hit businesses, logistics networks, Black Sea port facilities and civilian infrastructure.

The economic impact of the attacks is cutting tax revenue and leaving the government with a widening budget gap as it seeks to finance the war, officials have said.

“The Russians are constantly expanding their escalation operation,” President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said, noting that a food warehouse used by McDonald's was also hit on Friday. “It is important that the world responds to all of this and that Russia feels the response to its terror.”

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Ukraine has also boosted attacks on Russia, targeting defence and energy facilities as well as online retailers to try to undermine revenues and support for Moscow's war effort.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, speaking in St. Petersburg, Russia's second-largest city, said Ukrainian forces had instigated attacks “on every front” and should be made to feel the effect of retaliatory strikes.

He said proposals for new peace talks and a ceasefire remained on the table, but Moscow had “to think carefully” about how to respond.

A woman reacts as people gather near the site of an apartment building which was hit by a Russian jet drone strike, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine, 25 September 2026.

Reuters

Russia and Ukraine trade drone strikes

A drone strike on a high-rise building in central Kyiv early on Friday killed a 14-year-old boy in what Zelenskyy described as an “absolutely savage and sickening” attack.

Mayor Vitali Klitschko later said that the bodies of four people had been found in a parking lot in a separate daytime strike on an office building.

He said 59 people were injured in Friday's attacks, with 25 being treated in hospital, one in a serious condition. Russian attacks on the city continued through the afternoon and evening.

The UN said on Friday its monitoring mission in Ukraine had recorded at least 200 civilian deaths in September from attacks that also damaged “homes, hospitals, shops and workplaces”.

Russia's defence ministry said its forces had carried out overnight drone strikes on Ukrainian defence industry sites, logistics centres and vessels used by Kyiv's armed forces.

In Ukraine's latest attacks on Russia, a drone strike forced the suspension of operations at the Novoshakhtinsk oil refinery in the Rostov region.

Zelenskyy confirmed the strike, saying Ukraine had also hit a similar facility in Perm and a defence enterprise in Ulyanovsk.

ArcelorMittal, whose Kryvyi Rih plant produced 1.7 million metric tons of steel in 2025, said it expected to book a non-cash impairment charge of around $1 billion.

“It is with deep regret that we have concluded that we are no longer able to safely operate ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih,” subsidiary CEO Mauro Longobardo said in a statement.

The plant's operations also include iron ore mines, which produced 7.6 million tons of iron ore in 2025, according to the company's annual report.

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