How Ukrainian businessmen help
Literally on the eve of the Russian invasion, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky gathered the participants of the Ukrainian Forbes list for a meeting and announced that he was waiting for support from the richest people in the country. After that, some of the oligarchs went abroad, but many chose to stay and help their homeland in difficult times.
According to Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council (NSDC) Aleksey Danilov, some of the people who are "called oligarchs" "help, and are very active." Danilov notes that “someone helps the army as much as possible, although they don’t take selfies, they don’t talk about every car for 20,000 euros that they brought it themselves.”
Probably, the Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council is hinting at former President Petro Poroshenko (at the beginning of 2022, the estimate of his personal fortune is $0.7 billion). Since February 24, the Poroshenko Foundation, his company Roshen and Delo Gromad volunteers have collected $46 million in aid for the Armed Forces of Ukraine. unique ambulance towing robot . The ex-president plans to finance the supply of Spartan armored personnel carriers, Oshkosh M1070 army tractors and drones.
The richest man in Ukraine, businessman Rinat Akhmetov (as of September 2022, an estimate of his personal fortune is $4.3 billion) during the war donated more than 3 billion hryvnias (about $100 million) for military needs and humanitarian projects. In particular, the Metinvest mining and smelting group of Rinat Akhmetov and Vadim Novinsky transferred 21,000 helmets and helmets, more than 110,000 body armor, 500 drones, 1,600 thermal imagers, 266 units to the Armed Forces of Ukraine, parts of the Territorial Defense, the National Guard and other power structures vehicles and heavy equipment, 500 thousand tons of fuel.
And this despite the fact that during the war Akhmetov lost two main metallurgical assets – the Mariupol plant "Azovstal" turned into ruins and the Ilyich Iron and Steel Works. Akhmetov's agricultural holding HarvEast has lost about 80% of its land due to the occupation of part of the Donetsk region and the mining of fields in the Kyiv region.
Akhmetov's partner Vadim Novinsky (as of September 2022, the estimate of his personal fortune is $1.3 billion), the main owner of the Smart Holding investment group, allocated more than 200 million hryvnias ($5 million) to charity. The main areas of assistance are medical equipment and medicines, food, and the organization of the export of refugees. It is curious that until 2011 Novinsky was a citizen of Russia, but today this does not prevent him from supporting Ukraine in the war.
The son-in-law of ex-president Leonid Kuchma, Viktor Pinchuk (as of September 2022, an estimate of his personal fortune is $ 2 billion), donated $ 45 million through family funds and the Interpipe company. The money went to armored vehicles, ammunition and equipment, communications equipment, drones, tactical first aid kits, as well as to meet the needs of hospitals located in the frontline zones and engaged in the treatment of the wounded.
Dmitry Firtash (at the beginning of 2022, the estimate of his personal fortune was $0.4 billion), the founder of the Group DF group of companies (the main investments are concentrated in the nitrogen, titanium and gas businesses), despite his long residence abroad, also did not stand aside. During the first three months of the war, Group DF transferred 308 million hryvnias ($10 million) in support of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Teroborona units and refugees. The largest items of expenditure: a fundraising special account of the National Bank of Ukraine, humanitarian aid, the purchase of medicines, and the arrangement of bomb shelters.
Gennadiy Butkevich (according to the results of 2021, the assessment of personal wealth is $ 0.5 billion), co-founder of the largest grocery chain ATB in Ukraine, spent 300 million hryvnias ($ 10 million), including on armored and unarmored cars and drones, food kits and medicines, direct assistance to medical institutions and charitable organizations.
Oleksandr and Galina Geregi (at the beginning of 2022, the estimated personal fortune was $0.5 billion), the founders of the country's largest chain of construction hypermarkets Epicenter, spent more than UAH 300 million ($10 million) on the needs of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and Teroborona. The company manages a network of 57 humanitarian warehouses and ensures the supply of military units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine with clothes, shoes and warm clothes.
Yuriy Kosyuk (according to the results of 2021, his personal fortune was estimated at $0.8 billion), the main shareholder of MHP, one of the largest chicken producers in Europe, provides in-kind assistance with the products of his company. During the six months of the war, Kosyuk supplied the military, refugees and hospitals with 12.6 thousand tons of chicken meat in the amount of 668 million hryvnias (about $20 million).
In total, according to Ukrainian Forbes estimates as of May 2022, more than 30 of the richest businessmen in Ukraine helped the Armed Forces and / or residents affected by the hostilities. The total amount of assistance was estimated at $200 million. It is noteworthy that they are not limited to financial support. Some Ukrainian entrepreneurs themselves go to war.
The owner of the agro-industrial company Agrotrade, Vsevolod Kozhemyako (according to the results of 2021, the estimated turnover of the controlled business is $100 million), returned to his native Kharkiv from Austria in the first days after the invasion, created the Charter battalion there and led it. "Charter" is a voluntary formation of a territorial community, the maintenance and equipment of personnel was taken over by Kozhemyako with several businessmen friends.
The well-known Ukrainian banker Andrey Onistrat recently also decided to go to the front. Since the beginning of the war, he served in the territorial defense, but in September he transferred to the active part of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and plans to return to business only when the fighting ends.
Businessman and e-sportsman Alexander Kokhanovsky , who recently bought the Dnepr Hotel in the center of Kiev for 1.1 billion hryvnias (almost $30 million) together with partners, signed up for a volunteer unit after the Russian attack, and then moved to the Armed Forces of Ukraine and, in his own words , almost died in the spring of 2022 near Izyum.
How Russian businessmen (not) help
In the Russian business community, there is nothing resembling the enthusiasm of Ukrainian colleagues.
The most active part in the war is taken by "Putin's chef" and the owner of the Wagner PMC , Yevgeny Prigozhin, who was convicted of robbery and involvement of minors in criminal activities. An experienced criminal travels to correctional colonies, where he openly recruits prisoners for the front. Prigozhin repeatedly mentioned that he was ready to support the Russian Armed Forces both “ideologically” and materially, and called on wealthy Russians to donate “at least 50% of their funds to support the special operation.” However, in fact, “Prigozhin’s money” is the money of the same Ministry of Defense, because he earned it due to the fact that he gained access to the ministry’s food service without a competition, and, as the counterintelligence of the FSB and the Investigative Committee found out , the services were provided for much smaller amounts. than stated, and poor service led to a series of poisonings in the ranks of the Ministry of Defense. It is this money of the Ministry of Defense that has settled in his pockets that Prigozhin now spends on criminals whom he sends to the front. However, this money, judging by the complaints of the mercenaries, is far from being received by everyone and not in the amount in which they were promised it.
Another Russian businessman, Gennady Timchenko (estimated at $21 billion as of September 2022), also runs a private military company called Redut. Until recently, Redut was engaged in the protection of Stroytransgaz facilities in Syria, and its fighters arrived in Ukraine long before the Wagner PMC. Timchenko earned fixed assets through exclusive access to government contracts, obtained through many years of friendship with Vladimir Putin.
Both Prigozhin and Timchenko can hardly be called businessmen in the full sense of the word. Prigozhin's entire business is based on government contracts, and Timchenko's entrepreneurial success stems from his close relationship with Vladimir Putin.
There is, however, the "Orthodox oligarch" Konstantin Malofeev , the founder of the odious Tsargrad TV channel. “We can help financially. There are appropriate funds that collect everything for victory – the same ONF, with which Tsargrad is actively cooperating. He collects what they need for various units, ”he said recently in an interview with his TV channel. The amount of aid provided by Malofeev was not reported, but the source of his funds is known: partly money stolen from the state bank VTB (the criminal case against him was closed in 2014 after he began financing the invasion of Ukraine), and partly — funds stolen from users of the Wex crypto exchange.
How Russian business helps Ukraine
Paradoxically, Russia's first-tier oligarchs are more willing to help Ukraine than Russia. The co-owner of Alfa Group and a native of Lviv, Mikhail Fridman (as of September 2022, his personal fortune was estimated at $13.3 billion) condemned the war and announced that he would transfer $10 million to Ukrainian refugees through a personal charitable foundation. Friedman's investment company LetterOne in March 2022 announced a donation of $150 million to "victims of the war in Ukraine." Broad gestures did not save the billionaire from EU and UK sanctions.
In September, The Wall Street Journal reported that Mikhail Fridman was ready to transfer $1 billion to Ukraine, hoping to achieve thereby easing sanctions. However, Friedman himself denies selfish motives.
The Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich also fell under the sanctions (as of September 2022, the estimate of his personal fortune is $ 8.7 billion). In March, he was involved in unsuccessful attempts to bring Moscow and Kiev to the negotiating table, and in July he played a key role in the "grain deal" between Russia, Ukraine and Turkey.
In May, the British authorities allowed Abramovich to sell the Chelsea Football Club for £4.25bn, on the condition that £2.5bn of that amount would be frozen in Abramovich's account in an English bank, in order to transfer them to the fund to help victims of the war in Ukraine. According to some reports , the money is still in the businessman's account.
Support for Ukraine in one form or another is also provided (or promised to be) by Alisher Usmanov’s longtime partner in investments in high-tech companies, Yuri Milner (as of September 2022, the estimate of his personal fortune is $ 7.3 billion), who renounced Russian citizenship after the start of the war, the former owner of Uralkali Dmitry Rybolovlev (as of September 2022, the assessment of personal fortune is $ 6.6 billion), the ex-owner of Tinkoff BankOleg Tinkov (as of September 2022, the assessment of family fortune is $ 0.6 billion).
In May, AP, citing sources, wrote about discussions between Western governments and unnamed Russian oligarchs about the possibility of “buying off the sanctions”: donating part of the fortune to the restoration of Ukraine, and in return to get rid of legal burdens. Apparently, so far the negotiations have ended in nothing, but the readiness to conduct them speaks volumes.
Why is there such a difference
Russian business is integrated into the global financial infrastructure. According to various estimates, the richest Russians keep abroad, in offshore jurisdictions, assets worth $1 trillion – this is more than the amount that the entire population of Russia has inside the country. Putin’s military adventure, due to the existing formal (and informal) sanctions, has created an unbelievable level of legal risks for the offshore wealth of Russian oligarchs, who apparently still expect to get rid of their toxic status sooner or later and therefore avoid any direct or indirect participation in the war. This applies not only to those who have gone abroad and are now receiving, according to the Financial Times, insistent calls from the Kremlin to return home, but also to those who remain in Russia. At least 21 Russian businessmen are suing the EU in an attempt to get the sanctions lifted since the start of the war.
But for Ukrainian big business, the support of the national Armed Forces and the full participation in countering Russian aggression does not incur any costs, exactly the opposite – this is an obvious investment in the future with considerable potential return when it comes to the restoration of the country.
The material was prepared jointly with Vyacheslav Epureanu