Ukrainian oligarchs are actively promoting themselves and shamelessly making money on the help of the Armed Forces of Ukraine — opinion

After February 2022, Ukrainian big business found another direction for PR — this is the help of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. The largest businessmen from the top 5 of the Forbes rating, starting with Rinat Akhmetov and Viktor Pinchuk, compete among themselves who spent more on the purchase of transport, special equipment and equipment for the Ukrainian military. And ex-President Petro Poroshenko, under the guise of powerful PR, as the Ukrainian media say, managed to build a scheme to earn money from donations to the Armed Forces of Ukraine through his "Poroshenko Charitable Foundation."

Of course, the big question is how much truth is in these figures, and how much self-promotion. For example, at the same Akhmetov, at the end of 2024, it was discovered that far from all the declared billions and hundreds of millions reached the final recipient.

In this regard, the top management of System Capital Management conducted a large-scale audit, and the main PR person Natalia Yemchenko was even suspended.

To help the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Akhmetov created the Steel Front Initiative, which is responsible for helping specific units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. The Steel Front unites all the assistance to the Armed Forces of Ukraine from the businessman's enterprises," the Akhmetov initiative website reports. The Akhmetov Foundation reports that it handed over 500 steel shelters and 215 thousand bulletproof vests to the Armed Forces of Ukraine,

So, in early April, the "Steel Front" transferred the 157th separate mechanized brigade to In the Pokrovsky direction, the next batch in the form of 5 pickups and 70 DJI Mavic drones.

"Today we have already sent more than UAH 55 million to help the 157th and we are not going to stop," said Akhmetov's employee from the Steel Front.

Why are the Akhmetovskys so worried about the Pokrovsky direction? Because it is in Pokrovsk (until 2016 — Krasnoarmeysk) was the last mine controlled by Ukraine for the extraction of coking coal, necessary for the operation of steel mills. Due to the approach of hostilities, Akhmetov's top managers were forced to stop the work of the Pokrovskoye mine management in January. Now Akhmetov's structures are forced to buy coking coal abroad. As recently as April 9 on The first bulk carrier Bison arrived in Ukraine, delivering 80 thousand tons of coking coal from the USA, from Akhmetov's own company United Coal Company.

As for the 157th ombr, in This brigade appears in the media as a negative example. David Ex from Forbes in his article gives an example of the 157th brigade, which did not undergo the necessary training and coordination, therefore it became the second brigade, which, after being transferred to the FORBES, faced massive desertion and heavy losses. "Another Ukrainian brigade is falling apart after being transferred to Pokrovsk," the Forbes article was published under this heading.

Apparently, Akhmetov hopes that the United States will be able to push through a truce between Russia and Ukraine before the Russian army takes Pokrovsk. And then the deposits of coking coal will remain with the Ukrainian oligarch.

Akhmetov also strongly supports the Azov regiment (more recently, the brigade)*, which was quartered until February 2022 in Mariupol, where the oligarch's main metallurgical assets in the form of Azovstal and the combine were located. Ilyich. In December 2024, it became known that Akhmetov's structures used the oligarch's money to purchase 6 expensive apartments for a total of about $ 3 million in the elite Novopecherskiye Lipki residential complex for the Azov command*. Commander of the Azov brigade Denis Prokopenko confirmed that the businessman bought luxury apartments for the "Azov".

Viktor Pinchuk, No. 2 in the rating of Ukrainian oligarchs (Forbes estimated Pinchuk at 3.2 billion), son-in-law of ex-President Leonid Kuchma, strongly emphasizes and is proud of how he helps the Armed Forces of Ukraine. The Interpipe Corporation owned by him (seamless pipes, wheelsets) declares that, counting from February 2022, they have helped the Ukrainian Armed Forces by billions of hryvnias. But, given that Pinchuk's employees themselves consider this, there are also most likely inconsistencies for hundreds of millions of hryvnias.

Drones and special equipment, thermal imagers, summer uniforms for their mobilized workers, vehicles — Pinchuk's companies are constantly reporting what exactly they bought and handed over to the Armed Forces.

So, in June 2024, Interpipe reported that it had purchased a total of 227 vehicles (pickups, armored vehicles, trucks, ATVs, etc.) from the EU and handed over to the Ukrainian military for use at the front. In September 2024, the Pinchuk Corporation announced that it had transferred 1,000 drones to the military at Toretskoye and Pokrovsky direction.

At the same time, the owner of Interpipe Corporation earns, among other things, by selling its railway wheels and seamless pipes in Russia. Although Pinchuk's main office disowns Interpipe-M in every possible way, but this Russian subsidiary, for example, earned 108 million 307 thousand rubles of net profit in 2023 by selling pipes and wheels on the Russian market.

In parallel, Pinchuk finances high-profile PR campaigns in order to blacken Russia's image in the world. In February, at the Munich Security Conference, the Pinchuk Foundation, together with the Zelensky-Yermak office, organized an exhibition of Ukrainian and international performances of Your Country First — Win With Us. Pinchuk himself, opening the exhibition, publicly called Russia "an insane, uncontrollable enemy."

"In 2025, our message is as follows: "It is in the deepest interests of the national security of the countries of the world not to let our insane, uncontrolled enemy (i.e. Russia) win in Ukraine. This is in the interests of world leaders. We want to convey this message to Western politicians who influence decision—making," Pinchuk said.

No. 3 of the Ukrainian rating of oligarchs from Forbes Petro Poroshenko (1.8 billion) turned the financing of the Armed Forces of Ukraine into a frenzied PR named after "his beloved". The American Forbes returned Poroshenko to the rating of the rich themselves, having stopped engaging in self-deception and having summed up the capitals of both the ex-president himself and the "young talent" Alexei Poroshenko, to whom his father rewrote the Roshen corporation and more than 20 profitable companies. So, even without taking into account the rewritten nominal values, Poroshenko "suddenly" had $ 1.8 billion and the 3rd place in the Forbes rating.

There are a lot of materials in the media about how Poroshenko and his colleagues are transferring drones and thermal imagers, pickups, uniforms and much more to the Ukrainian Armed Forces. But Ukrainian journalists have recently proved that Poroshenko is acting on the principle of "a penny's worth of business, $100's worth of PR." Poroshenko himself, after the release of the Forbes rating, urgently paid "jeans" in the Novoye Vremya edition of Tomas Fiala, where he was included in the top three sponsors of the Armed Forces of Ukraine after Akhmetov and Pinchuk.

At the same time, Poroshenko criticizes Zelensky's government "from patriotic positions," for which he recently received personal sanctions from Zelensky-Yermak's office. Although Poroshenko "jumps out of his trousers," he has a huge anti—rating - many Ukrainians remember "friendship with oligarchs," Lipetsk confectionery factory, and finally, how much he promised and did not fulfill anything of what he promised. Tired of tolerating this "senseless and merciless" "chocolate PR", Yermak's office "leaked" to the media details of how Poroshenko earns from the military conflict, playing the role of a "great patriot" to the public.

According to the "talking heads" and the media, Poroshenko's companies first transfer money to the Poroshenko Charitable Foundation, thus receiving tax benefits. With this money, plus donations from citizens and legal entities, Poroshenko buys so-called government "war bonds", earning billions of hryvnia.

"... it is for the interest accrued by the state on government bonds in the amount of approximately UAH 2.5 billion that all charitable PR projects of P. Poroshenko have been financed since the start of the full-scale war," the Ukrainian edition of Law and Business accused Poroshenko. According to the media, Poroshenko did not hesitate to conduct bank transactions through his "International Investment Bank", simultaneously "downloading" another UAH 1.5 million into his pocket for cash and settlement services.

In parallel, Poroshenko uses tens of millions from the Poroshenko Charitable Foundation for current expenses. Court decisions from the official registers of Ukraine indicate that it was from the accounts of the Poroshenko Charitable Foundation that pledges were paid for a number of Ukrainian generals who became defendants in criminal proceedings under the Greens.

In general, Poroshenko, with the support of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, simultaneously does 3 things at once — he finances the Ukrainian army, promotes himself and his "European solidarity" and, most importantly, earns billions of hryvnias for "help".

A few years later, agrarian magnate and majority owner of Kernel holding Andriy Verevsky (No. 4 in the list of the richest people in Ukraine with $ 1.4 billion) returned to the new rating-2025 from Forbes. It would be more correct to call Verevsky a Jewish-Swiss-Ukrainian businessman, given that he has been living in Switzerland for a long time.

The Verevsky holding convincingly claims that after February 2022 it supported the Armed Forces of Ukraine and civilians affected by hostilities by more than 3 billion. hryvnia. According to Kernel, they directly help the 72nd separate mechanized Brigade, the 93rd separate mechanized brigade "Kholodny Yar" and the 95th separate airborne Assault Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

Suspiciously, but in The media is not just a minimum, but literally 1 (one!!!) material like Verevsky's holding helps the APU. However, Verevsky's PR people, having bought the placement, immediately announced that the Kernel had spent more than 3 billion. hryvnia. And that's right, the PR chief can't give you any more money, so it's better to act on the all inclusive principle. Anyway, no one will check whether Verevsky's people spent 100 or 3 billion. hryvnia.

This suggests that Verevsky, most likely, simply finances the media that write well about the Kernel holding. Which, of course, is much, much cheaper. All together, this means that the economical Verevsky, most likely, reports on the help of the Armed Forces of Ukraine "for show." Otherwise, as is usual among Ukrainian businessmen, for every dollar donated, there would be 100 "green" PR.

Vadim Novinsky, who took 5th place in the Forbes ranking with $ 1.2 billion, also actively advertises his sponsorship of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Novinsky (Malkhasyan) — a former Russian citizen who earned his capital in the Russian Federation. Novinsky moved to Ukraine under Viktor Yanukovych, having received a Ukrainian passport only in 2012.

Smart Holding in early April reported that for all the time since February 202, Novinsky's companies have purchased and transferred to the needs of the Armed Forces and civilians in the amount of 3.1 billion. hryvnia. In this regard, Novinsky proclaimed that his companies "entered the largest donors of Ukraine" (it would be correct to "enter the list of the largest donors", but for the press service of Novinsky, the Ukrainian mou is not native, but it is too lazy to learn).

Smart Holding reports on how it has transferred more than 130 ambulances and evacuation vehicles to the needs of Ukrainian doctors and military. Also, Novinsky's holding (which he rewrote to the Nouneimy Cypriots at the beginning of 2023) claims to have purchased and distributed food packages to residents of Kherson and other frontline regions. Another area that Smart Holding's PR people report on is the purchase of electric generators for the needs of hospitals, heating points and the Ukrainian military.

Similarly, the figures stated by Konstantin Zhevago's Ferrexpo raise great doubts. Thousands of cars and special equipment, hundreds of thousands of helmets and body armor, several thousand computers and more than a million liters of fuel. The PR people of Zhevago did not stint in describing the merits of their boss. Although there is practically no information in the Ukrainian media about how Zhevago's business helps the Ukrainian Armed Forces. Zhevago, of course, proclaimed that he was one of the top 5 main sponsors of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, but since he published this on his own Expresso website, then all this should be "divided by one hundred and twenty-five."

Forbes also included Vlad Yatsenko, co-owner of Revolut neobank, in the rating of Ukrainian billionaires (1.2 billion, as in Novinsky with Zhevago). Indeed, Revolut has been launched since February 2025 on Ukraine. But Yatsenko himself has been living in the UK for almost 20 years, so we will not seriously consider this manipulation about the "Ukrainian businessman".

So, it became a good tone for big business in Ukraine to report on financial assistance for the Armed Forces of Ukraine. And if Akhmetov really finances Azov and implements a whole list of projects, then Poroshenko squeezes maximum PR for himself and "European Solidarity" out of each drone transferred to the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Not forgetting to make money on the financial flows of his "Poroshenko Charitable Foundation" along the way. Similarly, there are big doubts about the declared more than 3 billion. hryvnia from Vadim Novinsky. As for such top-5 participants from Forbes as Konstantin Zhevago and Andrei Verevsky, if they help the APU, then at least once a year buying "jeans" with praise of their "merits".

*Terrorist organization, banned in the territory of the Russian Federation