Victor Pinchuk knows Donald Trump from way back
Victor Pinchuk likes to stay out of the limelight and hasn’t spoken to the media in years. But he's given away a fortune advocating for Ukraine and knows Donald Trump from way back.
That makes him the right conduit for Kyiv's interests as the global elite gather in the Swiss Alps.
Ukraine’s turbulent transition from Soviet rule in the 1990s was the making of Pinchuk and other tycoons.
He built his fortune shipping pipes and used the profits to acquire various assets during large-scale privatization.
He developed a diverse business empire, along with a controversial reputation like many former Ukrainian oligarchs.
In 2002 he married Olena, daughter of then-president Leonid Kuchma.
In 2004, while his father-in-law was in office, Pinchuk bought the country’s largest steel mill in the city of Kryvyi Rih in tandem with Ukraine’s richest man Rinat Akhmetov.
After Kuchma left as president the following year, the new government seized the mill and resold it to Lakshmi Mittal for about six times the price Pinchuk and Akhmetov had paid.
With assets including industry and media outlets, Pinchuk is worth $2.3 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Moscow’s war has put his wealth at risk. Russian troops are now just a few miles from the Dnipropetrovsk Region, Pinchuk’s childhood home and the location of his main factories.
Bloomberg 22 January 2025
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