The halt covers Ferrexpo’s mines and pellet plant beside Horishni Plavni in central Ukraine, about 280 km southeast of Kyiv, according to a regulatory filing Tuesday. The shutdown turns a wartime shipping disruption into a threat to one of Europe’s main suppliers of high-grade pellets. Shipping blowRussian drones struck a third-party vessel carrying Ferrexpo pellets in Ukrainian Black Sea waters late last month, killing one crew member. Ukraine owed Ferrexpo $90.3 million in refunds at March 31, tying up cash as wartime energy and transport costs stayed high. Ferrexpo produced 1.56 million tonnes of commercial product in the first half, down 54% from a year earlier.