Cargill Inc. suspended operations at a sunflower-oil plant in the Donetsk region, where Ukraine’s government is battling pro-Russian separatists, after it was occupied by armed individuals.

The plant was shut July 4 because of an “escalation of risk in the region,” Anastasia Dudley, a spokeswoman for Minneapolis-based Cargill, said today in an e-mail. There are no company employees currently at the site and it’s unclear when it will restart, she said.

Cargill, the largest closely held firm in the U.S., bought a 5 percent stake in UkrLandFarming Plc, Ukraine’s biggest agricultural company, for $200 million in December. UkrLandFarming Chief Executive Officer Oleg Bakhmatyuk said July 1 that he postponed a planned initial public offering for his company because of political violence in Ukraine.