Editor’s note: This is issue 22 of Ukrainian lawmaker Yaroslav Zhelezniak’s weekly "Ukraine Reforms Tracker" covering events from April 14–20, 2025. The digest highlights steps taken in the Ukrainian parliament related to business, economics, and international financial programs. The Kyiv Independent is republishing with permission. Benchmarks and
The war in Ukraine is not just a fight for national sovereignty — it’s a battle at the crossroads of a collapsing global order. While Ukrainians heroically resist Russia’s brutal invasion, the war has exposed the fractures of an economic system that has, for decades, concentrated wealth, power, and
The court immobilized a large consignment of industrial products and raw materials stored in the warehouses of the Mykolaiv Alumina Plant, which a Russian oligarch previously owned.
From 1990 until 2020, Roman Abramovich invested about $6 billion in Keygrove Holdings Ltd, a company registered in the British Virgin Islands.
Alisher Usmanov, 71, headed the federation until the start of the full-scale invasion in 2022, when the European Union and the U.S. first sanctioned him as a person who fueled Russian aggression in Ukraine.
The U.K. has sanctioned Ukrainian oligarch Dmytro Firtash, along with Angolan billionaire Isabel dos Santos, and Latvian politician Aivars Lembergs, according to the U.K. government’s website statement on Nov. 21.
Kyiv’s iconic “Hotel Ukraina,” located on the city’s central Independence Square, also known as Maidan Nezalezhnosti, was sold in an auction for Hr 2.5 billion ($60 million) after being state-owned since 1961, Ukraine's State Property Fund said. The sale marks one of the country's largest privatizations of
The following is the Sept. 17, 2024 edition of our Ukraine Business Roundup weekly newsletter. To get the biggest news in business and tech from Ukraine directly in your inbox, subscribe here. Ukraine passes latest IMF review Ukraine passed its latest loan program staff review with the International Monetary Fund
Cyrpus has stripped Ihor Kolomoisky's Cyrpus citizenship after concluding that the notorious Ukrainian oligarch had withheld vital information related to criminal charges he faces, Philenews reported.
The following is the Aug. 27, 2024 edition of our Ukraine Business Roundup weekly newsletter. To get the biggest news in business and tech from Ukraine directly in your inbox, subscribe here. Just as Ukraine was breathing a sigh of relief that over a month of regular power outages brought
Ukraine’s oligarchs, once the nation’s power brokers, have seen their influence wane dramatically over the past decade. Amid the ongoing war and internal reforms, the oligarchs who once shaped Ukraine’s post-Soviet trajectory face a new reality. The structural factors that created these powerful figures have largely dissipated,
When Bidzina Ivanishvili entered politics in 2011 and created the Georgian Dream party, he promised to give up his Russian passport and divest from business interests in the country.
Kellyanne Conway will be paid $50,000 a month for the duration of her collaboration with the foundation, set to run from July to November, with an option to extend.
Court seized additional assets of the brothers of former pro-Russian Ukrainian lawmakers, Viktor Medvedchuk and Taras Kozak, worth Hr 400 million ($9.8 million), the State Bureau of Investigation (DBR) announced on July 30.
Ukraine's High Anti-Corruption Court approved the Justice Ministry's claim to nationalize a manufacturing enterprise belonging to Russian oligarch Viktor Kononov worth more than Hr 2 billion ($48.4 million), the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) said on July 25
The proceeds from the sale of two vehicles seized from pro-Russian oligarch Viktor Medvedchuk will be used to support the Ukrainian military, Ukraine's Asset Recovery and Management Agency (ARMA) reported on July 25.
Russian oligarch and business tycoon Dmitry Pumpyansky has successfully appealed against sanctions imposed by the European Union, according to a decision by the EU General Court published on June 26.
Alexander Verkhovsky is a former Russian lawmaker who has been sanctioned by Ukraine. He amassed a fortune that Forbes Russia estimated in 2021 to be around $600 million through a fishing empire in Russia's Far East.
The Shevchenkivskyi district court in Kyiv ruled on May 24 that oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky must remain in custody until July 22 with an alternative of a Hr 1.96 billion ($49 million) bail, Unian news agency reported.
The Royal Romance, a 92-meter (300-foot) luxury yacht worth an estimated 200 million euros ($218 million), was seized by Croatian authorities in March 2022.
Jailed Ukrainian oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky is suspected of ordering the murder of the head of a law firm more than 20 years ago in Crimea, the Prosecutor General's Office reported on May 8.
TBILISI, Georgia – The ruling Georgian Dream party staged a massive rally in Tbilisi on April 29, with tens of thousands of people bussed in from around the country to support the country's democratic backsliding. Party leaders, including Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze, Tbilisi Mayor Kakha Kaladze, and Bidzina Ivanishvili, the founder
The following is the April 9, 2024 edition of our Ukraine Business Roundup weekly newsletter. To get the biggest news in business and tech from Ukraine directly in your inbox, subscribe here. French billionaire Xavier Niel’s investment company NJJ Capital announced that it would be acquiring and merging two
The court claimed Kolomoisky is a member of the British mining company JKX Oil & Gas Limited, which it labeled as a part of an "extremist group whose actions were clearly anti-Russian in nature."
The Shevchenkivskyi district court extended oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky's detention for another two months but reduced his bail to Hr 2.4 billion hryvnias ($62.5 million), his lawyer told Suspilne on Feb. 28.
The sale of Chelsea FC generated 2.5 million pounds ($3.2 billion), which Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich said he would donate to Ukraine.
One of Ukraine’s biggest embezzlement cases – that against oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky – is likely to be closed due to a recent court ruling, according to the Anti-Corruption Action Center. The ruling may become a death knell for Ukraine’s long-running efforts to prosecute the flamboyant tycoon. Kolomoisky, who is currently
Since Ukraine proclaimed its independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, a large share of its industries has been controlled by oligarchs like Rinat Akhmetov, Victor Pinchuk, Petro Poroshenko, Ihor Kolomoisky, Viktor Medvedchuk and Dmytro Firtash.
Episode #25 of our weekly video podcast “This Week in Ukraine” is dedicated to Ukraine's notorious oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky, his unprecedented arrest, and the changing political climate for Ukrainian oligarchs. Host Anastasiia Lapatina is joined by the Kyiv Independent's business editor Liliane Bivings. Listen to the audio version of the
Ihor Kolomoisky's recent arrest is the latest episode in a prolonged, hard-fought slide from grace for one of Ukraine's most notorious oligarchs. At his height, he governed a region, controlled huge chunks of multiple industries, made good use of his massive TV network, and a cadre of loyal politicians. Now,
The demise of the Soviet Union in the 1990s saw the state's vast wealth up for grabs by enterprising citizens; in making the public into the private, a new class of both Russian and Ukrainian oligarchs was born. For decades they played a pivotal role in both local – and often
(Updated: )
