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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
World
Isobel Koshiw in Kyiv

How the war has robbed Ukraine’s oligarchs of political influence

The war has seemingly enabled Volodymyr Zelenskiy to become the first Ukrainian president to sideline the oligarchs.
The war has seemingly enabled Volodymyr Zelenskiy to become the first Ukrainian president to sideline the oligarchs. Photograph: Miguel Medina/AFP/Getty Images

Ukraine’s richest people, known in the country as oligarchs, are used to dominating political and economic life. But in the five months since Russia’s full-scale invasion started, they have gone quiet.

Political analysts and experts attribute this loss of influence to the fact that oligarchs and their businesses – like all Ukrainian citizens – need protection in the form of the military and diplomacy, state functions they have no control over.

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