Metinvest is focused on protecting employees from Pokrovsk – CEO

Amid the hostilities in Donetsk region, Metinvest is focused on keeping its employees safe and helping the Ukrainian armed forces. The company is encouraging its employees to move from Pokrovsk to the east of Dnipro region to work on a shift basis. Metinvest CEO Yuriy Ryzhenkov told Forbes Ukraine in an interview.

The company is also evacuating families with children of its employees from the city and providing places in sanatoriums. In addition, the group has launched a project to build modular houses in a safe location away from the mine, where miners who are willing to work on a shift basis but do not have housing will be able to live.

The CEO of Metinvest reminded that the Pokrovsk asset is located west of the city and the frontline, close to the border with the Dnipro region.

‘We believe that the Ukrainian Armed Forces will defend Pokrovsk and stop the Russian invasion. Our task is to support the armed forces and build fortifications that will help our military stop the advance. Recently, the Ministry of Defence accepted the first steel underground hospital of our production. Projects like this help our military hold out and still deter the enemy’s advance,’ he said.

Pokrovsk Coal Group supplies coking coal to the company’s production. So Yuriy Ryzhenkov explained whether the group has a contingency plan.

‘We believe in the Ukrainian Armed Forces, although we do have a plan B. Even if we lose Pokrovsk, we will not stop. We can buy coal from DTEK, Poland and our mines in the US, as well as import coke. This will not be painless and will be a blow to the Ukrainian economy,’ he stressed.

Coal imports will increase the company’s production costs. As a result, Metinvest will no longer be able to supply some markets and will have to cut production. In turn, this will mean a loss of taxes for the government.

Metinvest has built 200 kilometres of fortifications in Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia regions. The construction of engineering and fortifications is carried out in cooperation with the military and civil-military administrations.