Scores of Ukrainian oligarchs and politicians are reportedly leaving the country on charter flights amid fears that Russia is planning to invade its neighbour “any day now”.
The revelation was made by Ukrainian newspaper Ukrainska Pravda, which also said that on Sunday (13th February) alone, some 20 aircraft departed with some of the country’s elite on board.
The newspaper claims Rinat Akhmetov and Borys Kolesnikov are among those who left the country.
Akhmetov, 55, is a Ukrainian billionaire who founded System Capital Management. According to Forbes, he has a net worth of USD 7.1 billion (GBP 5.2 billion).
Kolesnikov, 59, is the leader of the Ukrainian political party Ukraine is Our Home. He is the former Deputy Prime Minister and former Minister of Infrastructure of the country. He later told the newspaper he had not left the country and was still in Kiev.
The newspaper also said a private plane for 50 people was ordered by one of the country’s members of parliament, Igor Abramovich, age not reported, who the newspaper stated is a millionaire.
The plane was reportedly set to take the relatives of members of the opposition, as well as Abramovich’s business partners, from the Ukrainian capital Kiev to the Austrian capital Vienna.
The newspaper also named Victor Pinchuk, 61, who Forbes said in 2016 was worth USD 1.44 billion (GBP 1.06 billion), as an oligarch who left Ukraine on Sunday.
Other names listed by the newspaper as people who have now left the country include 39-year-old businessman Andrey Stavnitser, 62-year-old businessman Oleksandr Yaroslavskyi, 39-year-old politician Vadim Stolar, and 55-year-old entrepreneur Vasyl Khmelnytsky.
The United States has urged its citizens to leave the Ukraine, stating that a Russian invasion could take place “any day now”.
A number of European countries have followed suit, with the governments of Germany, Italy, Czechia, the Netherlands, Finland and Croatia, among others, urging their citizens to leave the Ukraine.
