Rinat Akhmetov is a billionaire, businessman, owner of a football club, and the founder of a charity foundation that has been helping Ukrainians from the very first days of the war. The businessman is not going to leave the country. One of his plants based in Mariupol became a stronghold of resistance of the Ukrainian people. Azovstal hosted about 1,000 Ukrainian defenders for several months, despite the fact that they were under a complete blockade by the Russian army, which brazenly broke into the territory of the independent state. Azovstal is one of the largest steel plants in Ukraine and meant a lot to the businessman. Unfortunately, almost the entire plant has been destroyed as a result of the daily bombings by Russia https://www.letemps.ch/monde/rinat-akhmetov-suis-fier-quazovstal-soit-bastion-resistance-marioupol

Moreover, the billionaire has already sued Russia for damages done to his business — Rinat Akhmetov’s fortune has been reduced by three times. Despite all the losses, the billionaire continues to help his people, and his businesses work to help Ukrainians.

In addition to the fact that the largest steel plant was destroyed, a large number of Akhmetov’s businesses were also destroyed or shut down as they are in the temporarily occupied territories of Russia. The holding of the businessman also includes DTEK, the company that was mentioned very often next to the name of the President Volodymyr Zelensky before the war. The Ukrainian state company Ukrenergo is engaged in the trade of electricity, buying it from private Ukrainian companies, and has owed them money. Thanks to issue of bonds, it was able to raise additional money and pay off debts to all companies, but one – DTEK was left out. Most likely, this was due to some tensions between Rinat Akhmetov and Volodymyr Zelensky. The billionaire also owns many TV channels, on which you could often see criticism of the President. Also, Zelensky has recently introduced the anti-oligarchic law, which states that oligarchs do not have the right to own media. Of course, this angered the businessman, and he said that he was not an oligarch, but an investor. Until February 2022, relations between the two influential people were difficult, but then everything changed dramatically at one point — the government paid off its debt to the businessman. After such news, the media rumoured about the truce between the richest man in Ukraine and the President Volodymyr Zelensky. Most likely, this move was made to get united against the main enemy — Russia, and especially Putin, whom Akhmetov called a war criminal. He also said that Mariupol was, is, and will be only Ukrainian. Presently, the billionaire has quitted his media business and certainly does not fall under the list of oligarchs.