Rinat Akhmetov confirmed that he relinquished Media Group Ukraine in favor of the state, together with all broadcast and satellite television licenses for its channels, and its print media licenses in Ukraine. The Office of the President called Akhmetov’s statement “a worthy example of the fact that the law is the same for everyone.”
At the same time, the Minister of Culture admitted that this decision was unexpected. SCM (owner of Media Group Ukraine) clarified that only broadcasting licenses, but not assets, will be transferred to the state. These assets include technology and other equipment, a content library, intellectual property rights, and brand rights. Akhmetov’s statement says that the decision to exit the media business was made to comply with the Ukrainian law on monopolists.
The MGU holding consists of numerous cable and satellite television channels, Internet resources and print media. The TV channels include Ukraine 24, Ukraine, NLO, Indigo TV, Football 1/2/3, international channels etc. The media holding employed 4,000 journalists and other employees.
The following article https://www.euractiv.com/section/europe-s-east/news/ukraines-richest-man-agrees-to-hand-over-media-empire/ clarifies that Akhmetov is not exiting the media business completely, as he has assets in other countries, which broadcast across the Ukrainian media space too. However, these are different media that use other platforms and operate differently. Thus, Rinat Akhmetov will maintain some presence in the Ukrainian information space, albeit not as large-scale as it used to be.
Support for Ukraine
The full-scale war brought great damage to Akhmetov’s enterprises, which could have also affected the decision to abandon unprofitable media. Metinvest and DTEK have lost a lot, and it will be tough to rebuild their assets, even when the territories where Akhmetov’s enterprises are located are liberated.
Despite all the losses, the businessman is not planning to slow down his regular assistance to both military and civilians. The entrepreneur leads the Steel Front initiative, donating vehicles, drones, charging stations, and other equipment to the military, having already supplied more than 1,200 vehicles, 47,268 first aid kits and tourniquets, 5,000+ UAVs, 17,037 units of special equipment, etc. Over the two years of the full-scale war, Rinat Akhmetov allocated UAH 7.6 billion towards helping Ukraine. Thus, the businessman constantly proves with his actions that he wants to bring Ukraine’s victory closer, displaying his unequivocal pro-Ukrainian position.
