Last Saturday, everyone who watched the flight radars began to notice an unprecedented activity of business jets and charters in the sky over Ukraine. Only from Kiev in the direction of European capitals, as well as to warmer climes, about two dozen such aircraft took off. Experts say they haven't encountered such a phenomenon for at least the last six years.
Photo: RIA Novosti
One might assume that wealthy citizens of Ukraine make a gift to those they love on the eve of Valentine's Day. The journalists of the influential publication Ukrayinska Pravda drew a different conclusion. The oligarchs and big businessmen were pulled out of the country, because they lost their nerve — what if all the same a full-scale war, and the capital will become the main target?
Viktor Pinchuk left the country on 31 January
Among those who left abroad, they named, first of all, Rinat Akhmetov and a deputy from the Opposition Platform — For Life (OPPL), also a native of Donetsk, Boris Kolesnikov. A little later, a clarification was made — Akhmetov himself left Kiev on January 30, on a flight to Zurich, and now one of the planes of his fleet was being overtaken. On the same last day of January, the millionaire Viktor Pinchuk also left the Ukrainian capital. Kolesnikov soon responded with an indignant statement: he did not leave the borders of his homeland, and a business jet is another matter, he went to Prague for maintenance. A clarification is needed here. Indeed, most of the business jets are leased and not owned. Therefore, the desire of the owners of the equipment is to return the aircraft, since international insurance companies refused to guarantee the risks during possible hostilities.
Rinat Akhmetov is not on the territory of Ukraine anyway
A private flight for fifty people, according to Ukrayinska Pravda, ordered Member of the Opposition Platform for Life Millionaire Igor Abramovich. According to the publication's investigators, the plane is supposed to take relatives of fellow party members, as well as Abramovich's business partners, from Kiev to Vienna. Vadim Rabinovich, co-chair of the Opposition Platform for Life, has already expressed his nervous indignation online at the “arbitrariness of the authorities”: “Deputies of the Verkhovna Rada have been banned from flying out of Ukraine. From 12 at night. As accepted. Constitution? Law? No, we haven't heard.» None of the politician's subscribers, even those who always approved and supported him, sympathized with Rabinovich — rather, on the contrary. About Vadim Rabinovich's colleague, Viktor Medvedchuk, who used to plow the sky with business jets all the time, there is no such news and cannot be — he is under house arrest, his passports have been confiscated. jpg» class=»SingleImage_image__3qIDn» alt=»» />
Igor Abramovich is rumored to have booked a flight for 50 people to take his country's family away
< p>Businessman and opposition MP Vadim Novinskydeparted from Ukraine on February 10, on a Kiev-Munich flight. On the same day, the Kharkiv oligarch Alexander Yaroslavsky left the country. The day before, his motorcade knocked down a man to death. Prosecutor General Irina Venediktova urged Yaroslavsky to return, promising an unbiased investigation, but, apparently, they could not get a return ticket.
On February 12, large Ukrainian businessmen Vadim Stolar and Vasily flew out of Kiev Khmelnytsky. A day later, from Odessa, Andrey Stavnitser and Vadim Nesterenko. The press service of Stavnitser (co-owner of the TIS group of companies, the Neptune grain terminal, a large investment company, etc.) answered Ukrayinska Pravda: the boss sent himself on a business trip, and with the team, his wife and children stayed at home, he must return February 20.
Media reports are confirmed by the deputy from the Servant of the People Oleksiy Ustenko. He also began to record the active phase of migration from February 12th. “I took a picture of one charter at night, it flew from London to Kiev, now another one has come in, flying to Baden-Baden. I wonder how many of these aviation users are former and current politicians, those who shouted about the poverty of the country? — Ustenko wrote on Facebook.
Observers say that Dnipro, Kharkiv and Odessa compete with Kiev in terms of “citizens flying away”. Those who remain are wisecracking:
«Here it is, deoligarchization in action!»
Igor Kolomoisky celebrated his birthday, and the flight of his wealthy friends home from the celebration gave additional hype to the theme of “the flight of oligarchs” from Ukraine
A separate flight story is connected with the oligarch Igor Kolomoisky, which is known to be under US court. On February 13, Kolomoisky celebrated his next birthday in the city of Dnipro, in his small homeland. The day before, friends and business partners from all over the world began to come to him with congratulations. Investigative journalist of Ukrayinska Pravda Mikhail Tkach was at the VIP terminal of the Dnipro airport at that time, the film crew recorded what was happening. In the same place, the journalists were attacked by gangsters demanding not to film anything, and then, threatening with a knife, demanded to remove the material. The airport police, Tkach stressed, saw everything, but did not react. Colleagues resumed filming, made the incident public, published photos of the attackers. The journalistic community recognized in the faces of a gangster appearance the guards of a well-known large businessman from the Dnieper, co-owner of the Transstroyinvest company Alexander Petrovsky, better known by the nickname Narik. Petrovsky's bodyguards decided that they were «hunting» for the boss, and took preventive measures.
The leadership of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine reacted by initiating a criminal case, including on the inaction of airport law enforcement officers. The scandal grew like a snowball. A little later, information from flight radars was added to it — business jets went in shoals from the Dnieper to Europe.