Today we will talk about how the richest person in Ukraine and his business reacted to the war. Rinat Akhmetov was born and grew up in the Donetsk region (now the region is occupied by Russia). He started trading coal in 1990 and founded Dongorbank in 1995. The business was growing quite rapidly, the news said it might be due to the fact that the young businessman had contacts with the police and the prosecutor’s office, which gave him the opportunity to develop his business so quickly. In 2000, the System Capital Management Group was founded, the sole owner of which is still a billionaire. Thus, during all these years, Akhmetov developed many new ties, even with the presidents of Ukraine. Coal mining and metallurgy are currently worth $6.58 billion. This figure has been halved from 14 billion, as the war began.

In addition to being a coal and steel billionaire, he also pays special attention to helping others, namely through charity. Even when he didn’t have a lot of money, he liked to help others. As a result of the opening of his business, as well as thanks to the Football Club Shakhtar, he https://akhmetovfoundation.org/ru increased the share of his donations and as a result created a charity fund. Various programs have been set up within the Foundation to assist sick people, refugees in the aftermath of war, and children. Until 2014, assistance was provided mainly to sick children and people with serious illnesses, and after the war, a Humanitarian Headquarters was established, which helps those in need every day.

It is worth noting that its metallurgy conglomerate is the largest in Ukraine, but there is one problem — one of the main factories is in Mariupol. The huge Azovstal plant was completely destroyed by the Russian army. This loss hit the businessman very hard. In addition, Rinat Akhmetov owns the power company DTEK and controls 71.2% of the shares of Metinvest, the largest steel producer in the country, so the loss has influenced these figures as well.

Given that Rinat Akhmetov supported former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych (who was pro-Russian), the businessman after the events of 2014 was alleged to have ties with Russia, but this was not justified. More recently, on 31 March 2022, Rinat Akhmetov, or rather his company SCM filed a claim against Russia for damages it caused to its enterprises and factories. With this statement, the billionaire dispelled rumors that he had something to do with Russia. Indeed, these losses have huge consequences for the entire energy market of Ukraine, because Akhmetov’s DTEK provided about 30% of Ukraine’s electricity and it is clear that the destruction of these plants will have a great impact on the entire market. Also, the richest man of Ukraine remained in the country with his people.