# Russian Ballistic Missiles Hit Zaporizhzhia Steel Plant and Cut Water in Kryvyi Rih

*Saturday, September 12, 2026 at 2:05 AM UTC — Hamer Intelligence Services Desk*

**Published**: 2026-09-12T02:05:31.060Z (3h ago)
**Category**: conflict | **Region**: Eastern Europe
**Importance**: 9/10
**Sources**: OSINT
**Permalink**: https://hamerintel.com/data/articles/17558.md
**Source**: https://hamerintel.com/summaries

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**Deck**: Russian forces fired Kn-23 and Iskander-M ballistic missiles into Ukraine’s industrial belt around Zaporizhzhia and Dnipropetrovsk, with strikes reported on a metallurgical plant and water outages in Kryvyi Rih.

Russian ballistic missiles again hit Ukraine’s industrial heartland overnight, with strikes reported on steel facilities and urban areas in Zaporizhzhia and Dnipropetrovsk regions and water outages in parts of Kryvyi Rih.

From around 00:00 UTC on 12 September, monitoring channels tracked what they described as a "medium-sized" barrage of Kn-23 and Iskander-M ballistic missiles heading toward central and southeastern Ukraine. Early reports pointed to at least four impacts in Zaporizhzhia City, explosions in Kryvyi Rih and Kamianske in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, and launches from Russia’s Rostov region, including near Millerovo.

By roughly 01:22 UTC, observers were reporting two Kn-23 and two Iskander-M impacts in Zaporizhzhia City, three Kn-23 strikes in Kryvyi Rih, and two Kn-23 strikes in Kamianske. Around the same time, one Iskander-M was reported to have hit the Zaporizhzhia Metallurgical Plant, with another missile striking an unspecified target near the city of Vilnyansk in Zaporizhzhia Oblast.

There were also alerts of Iskander-M or Kn-23 missiles over Lozova in Kharkiv Oblast flying toward Pavlohrad, and warnings of a "high threat to Kyiv" for about 90 minutes. Early accounts did not include confirmed casualty figures, and damage assessments remained fragmentary, focused mainly on visible impacts and immediate service disruptions.

In Kryvyi Rih, the most immediate effect felt by residents was the loss of basic services. By 00:27 UTC, reports from the city described water outages in some districts after three Kn-23 ballistic missiles hit the area. Explosions were also heard in Kamianske. Together with the four reported impacts in Zaporizhzhia City, these incidents suggested a wider strike pattern rather than a single, narrowly targeted attack.

Commentary from open-source observers described the apparent focus on metallurgical plants in Zaporizhzhia and Kryvyi Rih. These facilities are major industrial employers and key assets in Ukraine’s export economy, so turning them and their supporting infrastructure into targets has implications that go beyond the immediate blast sites.

The missile mix itself matters operationally. Both Iskander-M and Kn-23 are short-range ballistic systems designed to be difficult to intercept, arriving quickly on steep trajectories that compress reaction times for Ukrainian air defenses. With each new wave, Ukrainian planners have to decide which cities and fixed industrial sites to prioritize, knowing that stocks of high-end interceptors are limited.

In the short term, the key developments to watch are official Ukrainian reports on damage in Zaporizhzhia, Kryvyi Rih, Kamianske, and the area around Vilnyansk, including any casualty counts and details on disruptions to water, power, and industrial output. Further monitoring will also show whether missiles reported heading toward Pavlohrad or posing a threat to Kyiv resulted in additional impacts.