Ukraine’s richest man has offered to help restore the beleaguered city of Mariupol, a location near to his heart since he owns two massive steelworks that he claims will compete worldwide once more. Rinat Akhmetov’s economic empire has been wrecked by eight years of conflict in Ukraine’s east, but he remains defiant, convinced that ‘our gallant soldiers’ will protect the Sea of Azov city, which has been turned into a wasteland after seven weeks of bombing.
For the time being, his Metinvest company, Ukraine’s largest steelmaker, has announced that it will be unable to fulfill its supply contracts, and while his financial and industrial SCM Group is servicing its debt obligations, his private power producer DTEK has ‘optimized payment of its debts’ in an agreement with creditors.
‘Mariupol is both a worldwide tragedy and a global heroic example. Mariupol was and always will be a Ukrainian city to me’, Akhmetov said. ‘I hope our courageous warriors will protect the city, but I understand how tough and terrible it is for them,’ he said, adding that he was in regular communication with Metinvest management at the Azovstal and Illich Iron and Steel Works factories in Mariupol. Metinvest announced on Friday that it will never work under Russian rule and that the Mariupol siege had rendered more than a third of Ukraine’s metallurgical production capacity inoperable.
Akhmetov lauded President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s ‘passion and professionalism’ throughout the battle, presumably mending relations after the Ukrainian leader revealed last year that plotters seeking to undermine his administration had attempted to enlist the businessman. At the time, Akhmetov declared the accusation ‘a total fiction. And the conflict is surely not the moment to be at odds… We will restore the entire Ukraine,’ he declared, adding that he had returned to the nation on Feb. 23 and has been there ever since.
‘A MARSHALL PLAN FOR UKRAINE’
Akhmetov did not explain where he was, although he was in Mariupol on Feb. 16, the day several Western intelligence services expected the invasion to begin. ‘I talked to folks on the street, I met with employees,’ he explained. ‘My objective is to return to a Ukrainian Mariupol and fulfill our (new production) plans so that Mariupol-produced steel may compete in global markets as previously.’
On February 24, Russian President Vladimir Putin declared a ‘special operation’ to demilitarise and ‘denazify’ the country. Kyiv and its Western allies dismiss this as a ruse for an unjustified invasion. Akhmetov, Ukraine’s long-time richest man, has watched his economic empire collapse since 2014 when Russia grabbed the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea and two eastern Ukrainian provinces – Donetsk and Luhansk – declared independence from Kyiv. Akhmetov’s net worth was $15.4 billion in 2013, according to Forbes magazine. It is now worth $3.9 billion.
‘For us, the fight began in 2014. We lost all of our assets in both Crimea and the temporarily seized Donbas zone. We lost our companies, but it toughened and strengthened us,’ he remarked. ‘I am certain that, as the country’s largest private firm, SCM will play a vital role in Ukraine’s post-war rehabilitation,’ he added, quoting authorities who stated the war had caused $1 trillion in damage. ‘We will undoubtedly require an extraordinary international reconstruction effort, a Marshall Plan for Ukraine,’ he added, referring to the United States’ aid package that helped rebuild Western Europe after WWII.
Post Your Comments