Ukrainian oligarchs

Ukrainian oligarchs (Ukrainian: українські олігархи, romanized: ukrainsʼki oliharkhy) are business oligarchs who emerged on the economic and political scene of Ukraine after the 1991 Ukrainian independence referendum. This period saw Ukraine transitioning to a market economy, with the rapid privatization of state-owned assets. Those developments mirrored those of the neighboring post-Soviet states after the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Pro-Western sources have criticised Ukraine’s lack of political reform or action against corruption, and the influence of Ukrainian oligarchs on domestic and regional politics, particularly their links to Russia.^[1]^[2]

In 2008, the combined wealth of Ukraine's 50 richest oligarchs was equal to 85% of Ukraine's GDP.^[3] In November 2013, this number was 45% (of GDP).^[4] Ukrainian GDP fell by 7% in 2014, and shrank 12% in 2015.^[5] By 2015, due to the Russo-Ukrainian War, the total net worth of the five richest and most influential Ukrainians at that time (Rinat Akhmetov, Viktor Pinchuk, Ihor Kolomoyskyi, Henadiy Boholyubov and Yuriy Kosiuk) had dropped from $21.6 billion in 2014 to $11.85 billion in June 2015.^[6] According to a research by The New Voice of Ukraine in November 2023 there were only two billionaires left in Ukraine, these being Rinat Akhmetov ($6.59 billion) and Viktor Pinchuk ($1.72 billion).^[7] In November 2022 they had counted nine billionaires.^[7] The February 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine and its negative impact on the economy of Ukraine led to the decline in billionaires.^[8]

Usage

Oligarchs were usually defined as businessmen with direct influence on both politics and the economy. During the 1990s, oligarchs emerged in Ukraine as politically-connected nouveau riche whose wealth came through ties to the corrupt — but democratically elected — government of Ukraine in its transition to a market economy. Later, numerous Ukrainian business people took control of a political party. The Party of Greens of Ukraine, Labour Ukraine and Social Democratic Party of Ukraine (united) are examples of this,^[1] while other oligarchs started new parties to gain seats and influence in the Verkhovna Rada (Ukrainian parliament).

The rise of the oligarchs has been connected to the privatization of state-owned assets, the distribution of property titles to state-owned enterprises, land, and real estate, on an equal basis to the entire population of the country, through instruments such as privatization vouchers, certificates, and coupons. Given different levels of risk-aversity, property titles were easily re-sold. Businessmen who could provide initial investment capital were able to collect these property titles and thus take control over of formerly public holdings.

Various Western nations have raised national security concerns over the oligarchic kleptocracy since the early 2000s but these gained greater salience after the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine raised the national security implications of a great deal of money—sourced from Ukraine or Russia but spent in the West—finding its way into matters of national security.^[9]

The oligarchs' influence on the Ukrainian government was extreme. In 2011 some analysts and Ukrainian politicians believed that some Ukrainian businesses tycoons with "lucrative relations" with Russia were deliberately hindering Ukraine's European Union integration.^[10]

In 2021 Ukraine passed a law that defined an oligarch as someone fulfilling three of the following four criteria:

They have a fortune of $80 million (€75 million) or more;
They exert political influence
Own media outlets
Have beneficial ownership of a monopoly

There is a requirement to register on the "register of oligarchs". They are then banned from financing political parties, cannot participate in the privatisation of major companies and must submit a special declaration of their income.^[11]

List of oligarchs by wealth

In total, in September 2021 the top 100 wealthiest business people in Ukraine control around $44.5 billion, according to Forbes,^[12] 27% of Ukrainian GDP.^[13]

The top 10 Ukrainian oligarchs in 2021 were identified as:^[13]^{[failed verification]}

Rank	Oligarch	Value	Notes	Sanctions
1	Rinat Akhmetov	$7.6 billion	Energy generation and distribution, coal and iron ore mining, metallurgy, media industry	No sanctions, donating to Ukraine, assets confiscated by Russia, surrendered all licenses pertaining to his media group ^[11]
2	Victor Pinchuk	$2.5 billion	Steel rolling, media industry	Sanctioned by Russia,^[14] donating to Ukraine
3	Kostyantyn Zhevago	$2.4 billion	Banking, vehicle manufacturing, iron ore mining	On Interpol wanted list, charged with bribing Supreme Court head Vsevolod Kniaziev
4	Ihor Kolomoyskyi	$1.8 billion	Banking, crude oil	Sanctioned in 2021, stripped of Ukrainian citizenship, under investigation for embezzlement
5	Henadiy Boholyubov	$1.7 billion	Banking	Sanctioned by USA and being sued by Privatbank for $1.9bn ^[15]
6	Oleksandr and Halyna Hereha	$1.7 billion	Retail	Sanctions by Russia 2018 ^[16]
7	Petro Poroshenko	$1.6 billion	Vehicle manufacturing, confectionery	President of Ukraine 2014-19, no sanctions, lost official control of his television stations ^[11]
8	Vadym Novynskyi	$1.4 billion	Metallurgy, shipbuilding, Russian Orthodox Church	Sanctioned by Russia 2018-2020 and by Ukraine in 2022, lost his parliamentary seat ^[11]
9	Oleksandr Yaroslavsky	$820 million	Real estate, metallurgy	Sanctioned by Russia in 2018^[16]
10	Yuriy Kosiuk	$780 million	Agriculture, food industry	Sanctioned by Russia in 2018^[16]

Chernenko study

An economic study by Demid Chernenko identified 35 oligarchic groups based on data points between 2002–2016:^[17]

Oligarch group	Owners (members)
System Capital Management	Rinat Akhmetov
Smart Holding	Vadym Novynskyi, Andriy Klyamko
Energy Standard	Kostiantyn Hryhoryshyn
Industrial Union of Donbas	Serhiy Taruta, Oleh Mkrtchian [uk], Vitaliy Haiduk
Energo	Viktor Nusenkis, Leonid Baisarov [uk]
Privat Group	Ihor Kolomoyskyi, Henadiy Boholyubov, Oleksiy Martynov [uk; pl]
Group DF	Dmytro Firtash, Serhiy Lyovochkin, Yuriy Boyko
Universal Investment Group	Vitaliy Antonov
Azovmash	Yuriy Ivanyushchenko, Arsen Ivanyushchenko
Kernel	Andriy Verevskyi
Motor Sich	Vyacheslav Bohuslayev
Ukrprominvest/Roshen	Petro Poroshenko, Yuriy Kosiuk, Oleksiy Vadaturskyi
Nord	Valentyn Landyk [uk; ru]
Finance and Credit	Kostyantyn Zhevago, Oleksiy Kucherenko
Astarta	Viktor Ivanchyk, Valeriy Korotkov
Dynamo	Hryhoriy Surkis, Ihor Surkis, Viktor Medvedchuk
Interpipe	Victor Pinchuk
TAS	Serhiy Tihipko
Konti/APK-Invest	Borys Kolesnikov
Obolon	Oleksandr Slobodyan
Ukrinterproduct	Oleksandr Leshchinskyi
Stirol	Mykola Yankovskyi
Creativ Group	Stanislav Berezkin
DCH (Development Construction Holding)	Oleksandr Yaroslavskyi
AVK	Volodymyr Avramenko, Valeriy Kravets
Concern AVEC	Oleksandr Feldman
Aval	Fedir Shpig
Ukrsotsbank	Valeriy Khoroshkovskyi
Pravex	Leonid Chernovetskyi and his family
Forum Group	Leonid Yurushev [uk]
Uvercon	Eduard Prutnik
Continuum	Ihor Yeremeyev, Serhiy Lahur, Stepan Ivakhiv
EpiCentre K	Oleksandr Hereha, Halyna Hereha
Cascade Investment	Vitaliy Khomutynnik
Naftohazvydobuvannia [uk]	Nestor Shufrych, Mykola Rudkovskyi