Russian ballistic missiles and drones hit ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih and other Dnipropetrovsk sites, killing workers
Russian forces struck the ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih steel plant with ballistic missiles on the night of September 11–12 and followed up with strike drones in the morning, killing at least one contractor employee and injuring workers. The broader overnight attack across Dnipropetrovsk Oblast also hit an industrial site in Dnipro, damaged homes, schools and a healthcare facility in Kryvyi Rih, and struck the Nikopol, Marhanets, Vasylkivska and Raivska communities.
Key points
- On the night of September 11–12, Russian forces attacked Kryvyi Rih with ballistic missiles from several directions; strike drones followed in the morning.
- The target was the ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih steel plant, where production and auxiliary facilities were damaged and the enterprise activated its emergency response plan.
- ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih reported that two of its employees were injured and one contractor employee was killed; the overall Kryvyi Rih toll rose to one killed, three injured, with one person initially listed as missing.
- In Kryvyi Rih the attack also damaged five apartment buildings, a primary healthcare center, three educational institutions and business premises; a city assistance headquarters opened at 08:00 at a local school.
- Ukraine's Air Force reported high-speed targets heading toward Kryvyi Rih, Dnipro and Zaporizhzhia around 03:10 on September 12.
- Across Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, Russian forces struck an industrial enterprise in Dnipro (causing a fire), targeted the Nikopol and Marhanets communities (damaging private houses and a fire station), and hit the Vasylkivska and Raivska communities in Synelnykove district, where fires broke out.
- The same night, Russian strikes killed two people in Zaporizhzhia (a 64-year-old woman and a 37-year-old man) and injured six in a morning missile strike on a residential building in Odesa.
- The ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih plant had been struck before, including in December 2022 when a rolling shop was destroyed and an employee killed.
Why it matters
The attack struck one of Ukraine's largest metallurgical plants, killing a contractor employee and wounding other workers, and showed how overnight strikes on heavy industry cascade into damage to nearby housing, schools and healthcare facilities. The evolving casualty count — one killed and two wounded in initial reports, later one killed and three wounded with a second body later recovered — illustrates how figures from the same attack can shift for hours before stabilizing. The broader Dnipropetrivsk and parallel Zaporizhzhia and Odesa strikes point to a coordinated overnight campaign hitting civilian-industrial infrastructure across several oblasts.
What happened
Around 03:10 on September 12, Ukraine's Air Force reported high-speed targets heading toward Kryvyi Rih, Dnipro and Zaporizhzhia. Oleksandr Vilkul, head of the Kryvyi Rih Defense Council, confirmed that Russian forces had struck the city with ballistic missiles from several directions and urged residents to stay in shelters until the air-raid alert ended. Strike drones followed in the morning. The missiles hit PJSC ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih, where production and auxiliary facilities were damaged and the company activated its emergency response plan, bringing in firefighters, occupational safety staff, rescuers and medics. ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih said two of its employees were injured and one contractor employee was killed; an update from the site reported that a second body was later recovered. Overall the Kryvyi Rih toll stood at one killed, three injured (including two men aged 54 and 58 with serious injuries) and one person initially listed as missing. Damage in Kryvyi Rih included five apartment buildings, a primary healthcare center, three educational institutions and business premises, and the city opened a residents' aid headquarters at a local school from 08:00. Across Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, Russian forces struck an industrial enterprise in Dnipro, causing a fire; hit the Nikopol and Marhanets communities, damaging private houses and a fire station; and hit the Vasylkivska and Raivska communities in Synelnykove district, where fires broke out. On the same night Russian drones hit a private-sector area of Zaporizhzhia, destroying one residential building and killing a 64-year-old woman and a 37-year-old man, with a 59-year-old woman injured; in the morning a missile strike on a multi-storey residential building in Odesa injured six people, according to Serhiy Lysak. The head of the Dnipropetrovsk OVA, Oleksandr Hanzha, said Russian forces attacked the region nearly 20 times overnight using missiles, aerial bombs, drones and artillery.
How Ukrainian sources describe it
All the sources in the file are Ukrainian media or agencies, which uniformly attribute the attack to Russia and frame it as a deliberate strike on civilian-industrial infrastructure. Coverage centres official Ukrainian voices by name — Oleksandr Vilkul, Oleksandr Hanzha, and Serhiy Lysak — and foregrounds the timeline of high-speed-target detection by the Air Force around 03:10. Reports explicitly name the ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih plant and detail damage to apartment buildings, a primary healthcare center, three educational institutions and business premises, as well as the activation of a city assistance headquarters. Several outlets tie the strike to a recurring pattern by recalling the plant's December 2022 attack and the previous day's (September 11) Dnipro strike, in which a 61-year-old man died in hospital after more than 12 hours of care.
Where reporting differs
Kryvyi Rih casualty counts varied across reports: initial accounts gave one killed and two wounded; later reports said one killed and three wounded with one person missing; an update from the ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih site later recovered a second body; and some accounts list four injured. Region-wide Dnipropetrovsk totals for the night of September 12 also differed between outlets — one killed and three wounded in some, two killed and three wounded in others, and two killed and four wounded in yet another.
Background
The ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih steel plant is a major metallurgical facility in central Ukraine that Russian forces have struck before, including a December 2022 attack that destroyed its rolling shop and killed one employee. Two days before this attack, on September 10, Kryvyi Rih had already been hit by Russian strike drones, which damaged multi-storey and private houses, educational, cultural and business sites, injured five people and damaged the building of a Suspilne Dnipro correspondent, breaking more than 50 windows. On September 11, Russian forces struck Dnipro, and a 61-year-old man injured in that attack died in hospital on September 12 after more than 12 hours of medical care, with seven other injured still hospitalized.