Ukraine’s richest man Rinat Akhmetov has filed a lawsuit against the Russian Federation in the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) after the company’s assets were seized by Russian forces.
Rinat Akhmetov is described by The Moscow Times as a “steel tycoon”. He owns Ukraine’s largest steel manufacturer, Metainvest.
According to a statement issued on Monday by Akhmetov’s System Capital Management group, the lawsuit seeks “relief for Russia’s blockading, looting, destruction and diversion of grain and metals,”
Akhmetov claims that several coal mines, steel manufacturing plants, and other businesses in eastern and southern Ukraine have been stolen by Russian forces since late February. The businessman himself originates from the eastern Donetsk region, which has been targeted by the Kreml for close to a decade.
Metainvest has reported considerable damage to its assets. The best example is the Azovstal steel factory in Mariupol, which was besieged by Russian troops during the Spring.
“Russia’s crimes against Ukraine and our people are egregious, and those guilty of them must be held liable […] This lawsuit is one of the first international legal steps against Russia to stop their ongoing crimes, destruction of the Ukrainian economy and the plundering of Ukrainian assets,” Akhmetov explained in an official statement.
The company emphasised that over 234,000 tons of steel manufactured by its Ilyich Steel and Azovstal factories had been in storage when Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was launched. It is estimated that about 28,000 tons of the total amount were loaded onto several ships in the port of Mariupol.
The company told the Financial Times that 2,500 tons of that steel had been taken by a Russian-owned ship to the Russian city of Rostov-on-Don.
Answering the media’s question regarding this unusual situation, the Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia had withdrawn from the court’s jurisdiction and would not recognise any of its rulings.
Image: Valery Levitin / Kommersant
Author: Sbastien Meuwissen
