Four or five large companies linked to oligarchs will be controlled by the Ukrainian state due to their "strategic importance" in times of war, and could even be nationalized, the government announced yesterday.
Among them are the hydrocarbon producer Ukrnafta and Motor Sich, one of the large aircraft engine manufacturers, located in Zaporizhia and whose president, Viacheslav Bohusláyev, was arrested on October 23 accused of supplying Russia with equipment for helicopters. As for Ukrnafta, the State has taken most of the shares, 42% of which belongs to companies owned by Ihor Kolomoiski, whose bank, PrivatBank, was nationalized in 2016. Last July he was stripped of Ukrainian nationality .
According to the secretary of the Ukrainian Security Council, Oleksí Danílov, when announcing the new measures, "after the lifting of martial law, the assets could be returned to their owners or their value reimbursed."
Other affected firms are the automobile company AvtoKrAZ, whose owner, Kostiantín Zhevago, is missing accused of embezzlement, and Zaporizhtransformator, a bankrupt company that produces transformer and reactor equipment, belongs to Konstantin Grigorishin, a former financier of the Communist Party in Ukraine. and today persecuted by justice in Russia.
The companies will be managed by the Ministry of Defense and must "operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week for the defense needs of the State," said Prime Minister Denís Shmihal.
