Mariupol’s steel plants ask to start criminal cases over the metals thefts

Mariupol-based metallurgical plants, Illich Iron and Steel Works and Azovstal owned by Metinvest Group, have applied to the Prosecutor General’s Office of Ukraine with a request to start criminal proceedings on the fact of theft of metal products belonging to the plants by Russian invaders.

“From open sources, the applicant learnt that representatives of the military groups of the Russian Federation (and persons controlled by them and terrorist groups) that occupied Mariupol are taking out the property of the plants in an unknown direction and using at their own discretion, without legal grounds,” the statement reads.

According to them, such thefts have become systemic.

Steel plants said that the statements of the occupying authorities and collaborators themselves confirm the facts of metal export.

“The damage to the plants from the theft of products amounts to tens of millions of dollars,” they added.

Earlier, GMK Center reported that Ukraine loosed 2% of GDP because of Mariupol’s destruction. Before the war Mariupol was the large industrial city, one of the centers of Ukrainian steel industry. In 2021, Mariupol took the 6th place in the ranking of Ukrainian cities in terms of quality of life, overtaking Kyiv, Odessa, and Kharkiv. 431 thousand people lived in the city.