According to our affiliate Trade Union of the Metalworkers and Miners of Ukraine (PMGU), a Russian ballistic missile struck production facilities at Zaporizhstal on the night of 11 August, killing seven workers and injuring 21 others. 

IndustriAll Europe expresses its deepest condolences to the families and colleagues of the workers killed and injured in the attack on the Zaporizhstal steel plant. The workers were carrying out their professional duties and moving towards a shelter following an air-raid alarm when the plant was hit.

The recent attack comes against a wider backdrop of strikes on workplaces and critical infrastructure across Ukraine. Mines, metallurgical plants, energy facilities and transport infrastructure have repeatedly come under attack, putting workers who keep the country’s economy and essential services running at constant risk.

Workers producing steel, mining ore, generating electricity and transporting goods are civilian workers. They were not combatants. Their deaths serve as a tragic reminder of the human cost of Russia’s war and the daily risks faced by those who keep industry and communities running.

Judith Kirton-Darling, General Secretary of industriAll Europe, says:

“We stand in full solidarity with PMGU and with all Ukrainian workers who continue to do their jobs in the most dangerous and difficult circumstances. Workers and civilians must never be targets of war. We condemn this horrific attack on the workers of Zaporizhstal and extend our deepest condolences to the families, colleagues and communities of those killed, and our solidarity to those injured. The international trade union movement stands firmly alongside our Ukrainian sisters and brothers. There must be accountability for attacks on workers and their workplaces, and we join PMGU in calling for decisive international action to protect workers and their fundamental rights.”

Defending Ukrainian workers is also about defending universal labour rights: an attack on workers doing their jobs is an attack on the values shared by the international trade union movement.