Russian companies’ financial position is deteriorating: in January–July 2026, the share of loss-making large and medium-sized firms rose to 33.4%. The number of sectors in which losses exceeded profits increased almost fourfold – from three to 11.
This was reported by Ukraine’s Foreign Intelligence Service.
In addition to the sectors that were loss-making last year – including the coal industry, passenger transport, and postal and courier services – metallurgy, wood processing, logging, car manufacturing, the extraction of sand, chalk and salt, financial and insurance activities, sport and entertainment, and libraries and museums have now joined the list.
The largest gap between losses and profits was recorded in metallurgy – 269 billion roubles. In financial and insurance activities, the figure was 247 billion roubles; in the coal industry, 178 billion roubles; and in land passenger transport, 55 billion roubles. In the automotive industry, losses also exceeded profits by almost 4 billion roubles.
Russian businesses are being squeezed by high borrowing costs, rising wages, and higher fuel and transport expenses. An increase in value added tax (VAT) has added further pressure to costs, while weak demand limits companies’ ability to pass additional expenses on to consumers.
The worsening situation is confirmed by the results of individual major companies. In particular, the steelmaker Severstal posted a net loss of 4.7 billion roubles in the first half of 2026, whereas it made a profit of 43.6 billion roubles in the same period last year.
Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Works (MMK) in the first half of this year recorded a loss of 19 billion roubles, compared with a profit of 5.6 billion roubles a year earlier.