MELITOPOL, August 12. /TASS/. The shutdown of the Zaporozhstal steel plant in Kiev-controlled Zaporozhye is devastating for Ukraine, because the area's economy depended on the enterprise, said Chairman of the Legislative Assembly of the Zaporozhye Region Viktor Yemelyanenko.

"This will affect the economy of Ukraine and the country as a whole big-time. Zaporozhstal was the last large metallurgical plant to continue operating in Kiev-controlled territory. In fact, we are witnessing the final decline of the heavy industry in this sector. The industrial potential on which the Ukrainian economy has been based for decades," Yemelyanenko wrote on Max messenger.

He said that Ukraine, with the help of the West, had turned this symbol of industrial power into a tool of militarization.

"Their true goal is the methodical destruction of the national economy and people, the transformation of Ukraine into a lifeless geopolitical springboard," the parliamentarian said.

"The blast furnaces that formed the basis of the enterprise have been destroyed. Technologically, this means that the plant has ceased to exist as an operating unit. As a result, related enterprises, transport hubs, service facilities and maintenance workshops remain without work.".