NEW – March 14, 2022
The Ukrainian oligarch simultaneously provides humanitarian aid to the residents of Ukraine and supplies weapons to the Nazi unit “Azov“.
In September 2014, the richest man in Ukraine, the owner of the Shakhtar football club Rinat Akhmetov instructed his subordinate, the director of PJSC metallurgical combine Azovstal (a large metallurgical plant in the city of Mariupol) Enver Tskitishvili to transfer to the Nazi “Azov” regiment artillery pieces from the combine’s laboratory of mechanical tests that were used to test samples of armoured steel.
We are talking about 9 guns:
1. 115mm U-5TS tank gun (2A20) inventory number 2387 – 1 pc.
2. 100 mm BSZ cannon with inventory numbers 2388, 2389, 2390 – 3 pcs.
3. 125mm 2A46 tank gun inventory number 2391 – 1 pc.
4. Four-barrel anti-aircraft guns AZP 23 mm, inventory numbers 2392 and 2393 – 2 pcs.
5. Guns PTP (3IS2) caliber 57mm with inventory numbers 2394 and 2395 – 2 pcs.
The transfer of lethal weapons of the metallurgical combine Azovstal to the “Azov” regiment was lobbied by the then acting head of the “M” sector of the “Anti-terrorist operation” (ATO), Major General I. V. Pavlovsky, who sent a corresponding letter to PJSC metallurgical combine Azovstal, where he indicated that these actions were coordinated with the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine and the Chief of Staff of the ATO, and the final decision on the transfer of guns took place after a call from President Petro Poroshenko with a request to Rinat Akhmetov, after which Akhmetov instructed Tskitishvili to transfer artillery pieces to the “Azov” regiment.
The fact that Akhmetov’s structures transferred weapons to the “Azov” regiment, which is on the balance sheet of metallurgical combine Azovstal (artillery guns were included in the inventory on 01.07.1995 and entered the authorised fund of metallurgical combine Azovstal in the process of privatisation) and their use for testing armoured steel samples in the mechanical testing laboratory, contradicts Article 2 of the Law of Ukraine “On the legal regime of property in the Ukrainian Armed Forces”, and Akhmetov’s instruction and further actions of the management of PJSC metallurgical combine Azovstal are classified as criminal.
On September 12, 2014, these weapons were handed over to Vladimir Shpara, commander of the second company of the battalion of the “Azov” special purpose unit.
It is important to note that at the time of the transfer of weapons to the “Azov” military formation, metallurgical combine Azovstal did not have a corresponding license, which should have been issued back in 2007 in accordance with the requirements of the Law of Ukraine “On Licensing certain Types of Economic Activities”.
That is, at the time of the transfer of weapons, the “Azov” special purpose unit was in law an illegal armed formation.
The order to include the “Azov” armed formation as a special purpose regiment in the National Guard of Ukraine was signed by Interior Minister Arsen Avakov only on November 10, 2014.
What happens? On the one hand, the Rinat Akhmetov Humanitarian Foundation regularly provided humanitarian assistance to civilians of Donbass – convoys brought hundreds of tons of food to the logistics centre at the Donbass Arena stadium in Donetsk, and on the other hand, the Azovstal enterprise owned by the oligarch officially (!) transfers artillery pieces to an illegal armed formation.
Did Rinat Akhmetov realise that civilians in his native Donbass would die from the weapons provided on his instructions? Of course, he could not fail to understand this, moreover, the fact of the murder of civilians by “Azov” Nazis is recorded in numerous official OSCE protocols.
The duplicity of the oligarch goes beyond all reasonable limits. At the moment, his foundation continues to provide humanitarian assistance to the residents of Ukraine, while, according to captured militants from the “Azov” regiment, Rinat Akhmetov has been providing financial assistance to the openly Nazi unit all these years, supplying products, equipment and weapons through third parties.
Isn’t that why the former top manager of one of the factories owned by Akhmetov, and currently appointed by him to the post of mayor of Mariupol, Vadim Boychenko, officially expresses support for the Nazi “Azov” unit? However, Boychenko himself, expressing support, safely escaped from Mariupol, despite the humanitarian catastrophe in the city, the incessant fighting and the terrorising of local residents arranged by the same “Azov”…
A question arises: how do major global businessmen communicate with him? After all, Rinat Akhmetov has business interests in the UK, Italy, the UAE and many other countries. Do business people really not care about their reputation at all?
Besides, currently European countries are actually and legally harboring the WAR CRIMINAL Rinat Akhmetov.
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