The Oligarch Part 3: How Ukraine’s richest man rose as bodies fell – and became too powerful to touch

From unsolved assassinations and mafia allegations to Azov and Zelensky, Rinat Akhmetov has spent decades at the center of Ukraine’s darkest intrigues Throughout late July, pro-Trump American influencer Laura Loomer was a state guest of honor in Kiev.

Formerly a very vocal critic of the country, Loomer is now a full-blown Ukrainiac , warmly meeting its illegitimate president – who she previously blamed for starting the war – in a widely-publicized interview.

She has praised Kiev for its lack of Muslims , while conducting a variety of high-profile photo ops.

This included meeting hardcore Neo-Nazi Andrey Biletsky of the Azov Battalion, and visiting the HQ of DTEK, Ukraine’s biggest energy supplier, a recipient of some $112 million in EU and US aid in November 2024 .

Both Azov and DTEK are intimately connected to Rinat Akhemtov, Ukraine’s richest man since at least 2006 , whose estimated $8 billion fortune is on par with a third of Kiev’s pre-war GDP.

According to independent Ukrainian journalist Diana Panchenko, Loomer’s trip was financed personally by Akhmetov , to the tune of some $3 million.

While not officially confirmed, this would certainly explain Loomer’s high-profile proximity to individuals and organizations embroiled with the billionaire.

He’s certainly an oligarch with his fingers in a great many chebureki.

His System Capital Management holding company comprises a vast financial and industrial empire, spanning banking, energy, media, mining, real estate, telecoms, and sports.

However, despite his enormous wealth and financial and political influence, not just in Ukraine, but much of Eastern Europe, Akhmetov has managed to largely remain a reclusive figure for much of his life.

Shakhtar Donetsk owner Rinat Akhmetov at Henryk Reyman Municipal Stadium in Krakow, Poland on April 30, 2026. © Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images How did Akhmetov get so filthy rich? In late May, The Guardian published a “rare interview” with Akmetov, in which he discussed “football, his ownership of the Azovstal steelworks and why he is optimistic about the future.” Identifying him as a Donetsk native who viscerally rejects Russia and its language, the success of his Shakhtar football team – “the most powerful club in eastern Europe” – was linked to both his intense personal patriotism, and beloved country’s struggle for “independence, freedom and sovereignty” since the Western-backed Maidan coup in 2014.

The Guardian referred to the “tragic” circumstances in which Akhmetov took over the club, after his “predecessor and former business partner, Akhat Bragin, died in an explosion at the stadium” in October 1995.