Over 24 months of the full-scale invasion, SCM businesses, the Rinat Akhmetov Foundation, and FC Shakhtar have collectively channelled more than UAH 7.6 billion ($223+ million, , €210 million) towards helping Ukraine, its military, and civilians.
This comprehensive assistance is focused around supporting the Armed Forces of Ukraine, providing humanitarian aid to civilians and communities, as well as helping the defenders of Mariupol.
The assistance to Ukraine's army comes under Rinat Akhmetov's Steel Front military initiative. For SCM, this is of prime importance, as over 12,000 employees of its businesses have joined the ranks of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. This war took lives of our 846 colleagues, both military and civilians, 97 more went missing, with another 69 captured.
The Steel Front initiative consistently equips military units throughout Ukraine with crucial supplies, including protective gear, vehicles, ambulances for military medics, underground shelters and mine sweepers designed and made in-house, drones, thermal imagers, scopes, radios, cameras, clothing, footwear, bulletproof vests of our own steel, first aid kits, emergency tourniquets, fuel, and other essentials.
Rinat Akhmetov has allocated an additional UAH 1 billion ($25 million, €24 million) to launch the Heart of Azovstal project, which helps the defenders of Mariupol. The project features seven programmes that cover the needs of the defenders and their families. Notably, in November last year the Heart of Azovstal launched a new programme called At Home, gifting apartments to Mariupol defenders with disability category I and II, which aims to purchase 45 more homes in 2024.
Rinat Akhmetov's businesses and projects provide regular humanitarian assistance to civilians in the frontline and liberated areas, delivering food packages, household items, medicines, hygiene products, etc. In addition, SCM takes care of bomb shelters, emergency accommodation, and hospitals by providing sources of electricity and water in the areas where its businesses operate. Support is also provided to local administrations and utilities.
The conflict that began for Ukraine and for us in 2014 has escalated into a full-scale and particularly brutal war over the past two years. And it is still ongoing. This means all of us must intensify our efforts toward our collective victory. Next year, I and all SCM businesses are going to amplify our support for our Defence Forces and Ukrainian civilians. We will continue to help the Ukrainian Army by constructing underground shelters, producing mine sweepers, and providing essential equipment and resources for saving lives. Most importantly, we will continue to support people – the Ukrainian civilians affected by the Russian aggression, the defenders of Mariupol who will continue to receive all the support they need, and the veterans who made it possible for us to live on our land, in a sovereign and independent Ukraine. Our assistance will not wane until peace reigns over the skies of Ukraine once again. I am confident that we will defeat the enemy together and build a new, strong, and flourishing Ukraine.
— Rinat AKHMETOVSince the outbreak of the war in 2014, the Rinat Akhmetov Foundation has donated 700,000 medicines and over 13 million food packages to Ukrainians, launched new projects for rehabilitation of war-affected children and adults, supplied heaters and outfitted accommodation for the displaced Mariupol residents living in Dnipro.
FC Shakhtar also provides regular and comprehensive aid to athletes, the internally displaced people, soldiers of the Ukrainian Defence Forces, as well as communities in the war-affected regions. The club has fully funded the medical treatment in the USA of Mykhailo Dianov, an Azovstal defender, and is overseeing the treatment and rehabilitation in Barcelona of Vitaliy Shumey, a soldier severely wounded near Avdiivka. Furthermore, the club has sent Yevhen Larchenko, a Ukrainian soldier and Shakhtar's fan, to Israel for treatment, and is also taking care of rehabilitation of its player's brother, an AFU fighter Bohdan Kush. In yet another support effort, FC Shakhtar will channel UAH 22 million it earned for a friendly match with Tottenham Hotspur towards projects that help Ukrainians affected by the war.
