A loud remark about Putin from the wealthiest man in Ukraine

On 24 February 2022, Russia mercilessly attacked a peaceful independent Ukraine. As a result, the civilians, children, homes, maternity homes, hospitals, and absolutely everything that a missile or bomb can fly have been destroyed. In the case of ordinary people, they lose their homes, their jobs, their families, and in some cases even their children. But how did the war affect the richest man in Ukraine Rinat Akhmetov? The billionaire, whose pre-war wealth amounted to 14.6 billion dollars, has Ukraine a huge number of factories and enterprises for coal mining, processing, and steel production and is the owner of SCM Holdings, which is also engaged in energy.  

After the outbreak of war, Rinat Akhmetov lost a huge part of his fortune. If those figures were over $14 billion before the war, it’s only $5.5 billion now.  This is not surprising, because a large number of his production is located in the territories that are currently occupied by the Russian army. Unfortunately, some of his large factories have already been completely destroyed by shelling and bombs. After the beginning of the war in 2014, the businessman left his hometown in Donetsk region and never returned.  

The billionaire was widely alleged of having ties to the Kremlin, as Rinat Akhmetov was one of the main donors to former President Viktor Yanukovych’s party, which was overthrown by the Ukrainian people for wanting to give Ukraine to Russia. All these years, it was not clear whether a pro-Russian billionaire was there, but it became clear very recently. After Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, a billionaire sued everything happening on the part of the Russian military and said that it was a crime against humanity in Ukraine. He also personally spoke about Putin and said that “he is aimed at all countries where there is freedom, democracy, and independence”. After these words, it became clear that he had no ties to the Kremlin. Moreover, the billionaire said that Russia should immediately leave Ukrainian lands, including the Lugansk and Donetsk regions, as well as the Crimea. All these regions until 2014 were Ukrainian, but Russia took advantage of the fact that at that time the Ukrainian army was very weak and took these territories. 

For a billionaire, the war has caused huge losses in terms of business, but he is not going to leave Ukraine and stop his business. In an interview, he said that he wants to move his business to the western regions of Ukraine, but he is not going to leave his country, even though he has somewhere to go. He would like to share this grief with the Ukrainian people. It is worth noting that Akhmetov’s business depends on the heating season in Ukraine and not only because his company DTEK supplies a large amount of electricity not only to the Ukrainian market but also to foreign markets. Moreover, his company is one of the largest metal exporters in Ukraine.

Based on: https://rp-online.de/politik/ausland/rinat-achmetow-reichster-mann-der-ukraine-stellt-putin-an-den-pranger_aid-67043637

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