Ukrainian oligarchs and wealthy businessmen are fleeing the country as tensions with Russia reach a tipping point and Western countries are urging their citizens to leave, the Ukrainian website Prainskaya Pravda reported last Monday.
At least 20 chartered flights departed from Kiev last Sunday, more than ever in the last six years, the Ukrainian website reported, citing flight logs.
The two richer Ukrainian men Rinat Akhmetov and Viktor Pinchuk are among those reportedly on the run.
Shipping tycoon Andrei Stavnicher and agricultural tycoon Vadim Nesterenko also left Ukraine on Sunday.
Billionaire Igor Abramovich, a lawmaker from the pro-Russian Opposition Party for Life, reportedly chartered a 50-passenger plane to party members and their families in Vienna.
Ukrainian oligarchs and wealthy businessmen are fleeing the country as tensions with Russia reach a boiling point and Western countries order their citizens to leave, the Ukrainskaya Pravda news website reported Monday https://t.co/Ziw20RVa0p
– The Moscow Times (@MoscowTimes) February 14, 2022
The number of flights follows nearly two weeks of high departures, with billionaire Victor Pinchuk and metallurgical tycoon Vadim Novinsky believed to have already left the country.
Some of the individuals named in the latest report have since denied leaving, with Stavnitzer saying he left the country on a business trip and would return within days.
Businessman and former Deputy Prime Minister Boris Kolesnikov, whose plane also departed from Kiev on Sunday, said his plane had indeed been flown to Prague for maintenance and was still in Ukraine.
“Fraudulent and perpetual manipulation lies as usual. “I am in Kiev and I will not go anywhere until March 1,” Kolesnikov wrote on his Facebook page on Sunday.
The report comes as tensions between Russia and the West over Ukraine reach highest level of all time and threaten the outbreak of a new war in Europe.
The western warnings The 100,000 Russian troops gathered near the Ukrainian border have reached a critical point, with the United States saying Russia could launch an offensive at any time in the coming days, targeting the capital, Kiev.
The US, UK, Germany and Canada have asked for them their citizens to leave Ukraine has been evacuated after Washington warned of an impending Russian attack and many countries have evacuated their embassies in Kiev.
The Dutch airline KLM became the first major airline at the weekend to suspend flights to Kiev indefinitely.
Industry analysts believe that and other international airlines may soon ban flights to Ukraine due to rising costs for insurers.
Information: themoscowtimes / AFP
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