War in Ukraine disrupts key supply chains - and lives

It can be hard to measure the ways that Russia’s war in Ukraine has disrupted the global supply of parts and raw materials needed to manufacture products ranging from cars to computer chips

It can be hard to measure the ways that Russia’s war in Ukraine has disrupted the global supply of parts and raw materials needed to complete a variety of products – from cars to computer chips.

But cutting off one of those supply links brought a “depressing feeling” to Andrey Bibik, head of the Interpipe steel plant in Dnipro, Ukraine. He spent the first hours of the war winding down his bustling 24-hour operation and sending almost everyone home.

“It’s empty and lonely. You don’t hear a sound. You see everything is frozen," he said.

Getting Interpipe's steel transmission pipes to Texas oil companies and its railway wheels to European high-speed train operators has been put on hold. Hundreds of the plant's roughly 10,000 employees have joined the fight against Russia. Others have fled; a remaining skeleton crew runs its canteens and makes spikey metal obstacles to block Russian tanks and convoys. Its bomb shelters house dozens of local families at night.