The richest man in Ukraine has promised to help rebuild the besieged city of Mariupol, a place close to his heart, where he owns two huge steel plants that he says will once again compete globally.
Rinat Akhmetov saw that his business empire had been shattered by eight years of fighting in eastern Ukraine, but remained defiant, confident that what he called “our brave soldiers” would protect a city on the Sea of Azov that had been ravaged by seven weeks of bombing.
For now, however, his company Metinvest, Ukraine’s largest steel producer, has said it cannot meet its supply contracts, and while its financial and industrial SCM Group is servicing its debt obligations, its private power producer DTEK is “optimizing its payment.” debts ”in agreement with the creditors.
Read more: Ukrainian Mariupol is behaving despite the ruthless Russian bombing
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“Mariupol is a world tragedy and a world example of heroism. For me, Mariupol has been and will always be a Ukrainian city, “Akhmetov said in written answers to Reuters.
“I believe that our brave soldiers will defend the city, although I understand how difficult and difficult it is for them,” he said, adding that he was in daily contact with Metinvest’s managers who run the Azovstal and Ilyich plants. Mariupol.
2:04 Family escaped from the besieged Ukrainian city of Mariupol Family escaped from the besieged Ukrainian city of Mariupol – April 6, 2022
On Friday, Metinvest said it would never work under Russian occupation and that the siege of Mariupol had deactivated more than a third of Ukraine’s metallurgical production capacity.
Akhmetov praised President Vladimir Zelensky’s “passion and professionalism” during the war, seemingly straightening relations after the Ukrainian leader said last year that conspirators hoping to overthrow his government had tried to lure the businessman.
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Then Akhmetov called the statement an “absolute lie”.
“And the war is certainly not a time of controversy … We will rebuild all of Ukraine,” he said, adding that he returned to the country on February 23 and has been there ever since.
Marshall Plan for Ukraine
Akhmetov did not say exactly where he was, but that he was in Mariupol on February 16th, the day some Western intelligence services expected the invasion to begin. “I talked to people on the streets, I met with workers,” he said.
“My ambition is to return to Mariupol, Ukraine, and implement our (new production) plans so that Mariupol-produced steel can compete on world markets as before.
Russia invaded on February 24, when President Vladimir Putin announced a “special operation” to demilitarize and “denationalize” the country. Kyiv and its Western allies have dismissed this as a false pretext for an unprovoked attack.
Read more: That’s why Russia is after Mariupol – and why it may not be the change in the game it once was
Akhmetov, Ukraine’s richest man for a long time, has seen his business empire shrink since 2014, when Russia annexed the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea and two eastern Ukrainian regions – Donetsk and Luhansk – declared independence from Kyiv.
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2:22 Exhausted refugees from Mariupol, Melitopol share a painful journey while arriving in Zaporozhye, Ukraine Exhausted refugees from Mariupol, Melitopol share a painful journey while arriving in Zaporozhye, Ukraine – April 2, 2022
According to Forbes magazine, Akhmetov’s net worth in 2013 reached $ 15.4 billion. It currently stands at $ 3.9 billion.
“For us, the war broke out in 2014. We lost all our assets both in Crimea and in the temporarily occupied territory of Donbass. “We lost our business, but it made us stronger and stronger,” he said.
“I am confident that, as the largest private business in the country, SCM will play a key role in Ukraine’s post-war reconstruction,” he said, quoting officials as saying that the damage from the war had reached $ 1 trillion.
“We will definitely need an unprecedented program of international reconstruction, the Marshall Plan for Ukraine,” he said of the US aid project, which helped rebuild Western Europe after World War II.
“I believe that we will all restore a free, European, democratic and successful Ukraine after our victory in this war.
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(Report by Elizabeth Piper; edited by John Stone Street)
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