Russia's War vs Ukraine 'Impoverishes' Kyiv Oligarchs

For decades, Ukraine's super-rich businessmen have wielded enormous economic and political power in their country. However, since the Russian invasion, Ukraine's most infamous oligarchs have lost billions of dollars of their wealth, Vitaly Shevchenko reported for BBC News.

Photo Insert: Rinat Akhmetov is, for many, the epitome of an oligarch. He is known across Ukraine as "the King of Donbas."

Has the reign of the Ukrainian oligarchs finally come to an end? Ukraine's richest man - 56-year-old Rinat Akhmetov - is for many the epitome of an oligarch. He is known across Ukraine as "the King of Donbas."

He owns huge swathes of the steel and coal industry in the east, including the ruined Azovstal steelworks and Shakhtar Donetsk FC, one of the country's best football teams, and until recently one of the country's main TV channels.

But beyond their extraordinary wealth, Ukraine's oligarchs are also renowned for wielding political power. In 2017, London-based think tank Chatham House said they posed "the greatest danger to Ukraine."

Ukraine's oligarchs have repeatedly influenced the passing of laws for the benefit of their own business empires. President Volodymyr Zelensky called them "a group of people who think they are more important than lawmakers, government officials, or judges."

Many felt that Ukraine's richest man Akhmetov should have done more from the very beginning to stamp out separatism fueled by Russia in his home region. Especially when compared to another Ukrainian tycoon, billionaire Ihor Kolomoisky.

In March 2014, Kolomoisky was appointed governor of Dnipropetrovsk Region, southeast Ukraine. Kolomoisky pumped millions into Ukraine's volunteer battalions. He offered bounties for capturing Russian-backed militants and supplied the Ukrainian army with fuel. But then, in 2019, he found himself at loggerheads with President Zelensky's predecessor, Petro Poroshenko, also a billionaire.

Parliament had recently passed a law that resulted in Kolomoisky losing control over an oil company.

His response? Turning up at the oil company's headquarters with men allegedly wielding machine guns. Apart from Akhmetov, Kolomoisky and Poroshenko, oligarchs Viktor Pinchuk and Vladimir Novynsky also lost billions of dollars due to Vladimir Putin’s war.

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