Dilova Stolytsia presented the companies investing most in the country’s future through their corporate and social initiatives. It used the following criteria to select the rating participants: support for the defence forces, participation in reconstruction projects, protection and assistance for children and families in difficult situations, contribution to education, measures to ensure decent working conditions and employee development in the workplace, care for the environment, and focus on inclusion in business and society.
Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, Metinvest Group has spent UAH6.9 billion to help Ukraine and its citizens, including UAH3.4 billion on the army’s needs. In particular, as part of one initiative by its parent SCM Group, Rinat Akhmetov’s Steel Front, the steelmaker produces protective structures for military equipment of the armed forces of Ukraine, bulletproof vests, steel bunkers, underground command posts and mine trawls, as well as supplies high-quality steel for the Ukrainian army, free of charge.
As of August 2024, as part of the initiative, Metinvest had provided the defence forces with more than 300 vehicles, 150,000 bulletproof vests, 537 steel dugouts and other equipment. The Group’s enterprises have played a leading role in producing and supplying these vehicles and equipment to the front line, as well as manufacturing components and structures needed by the army in safe and secret locations.
Read more about Metinvest’s contribution to the country’s defence in the article “Defending the Defenders. How Metinvest Provides Steel Support to the Front.”
The defence forces require numerous means of protection and transport made of steel. They can rely on the production potential of Ukraine’s largest mining and metals concern.
The largest business bears the greatest responsibility. It is not just about money. The whole world is helping Ukraine with weapons, ammunition and general supplies for the army because we lack the materials required to repel Russian aggression. It is especially valuable when domestic manufacturing businesses can produce the necessary materials and components for the country’s armed forces.
Below is a detailed overview of Metinvest’s experience in providing material and production support to the armed forces.
“Armour” for equipment
The Group produces hundreds of tonnes of steel and armour steel, which, in addition to being used to manufacture body armour (since the outset of the invasion), can help to equip military vehicles. Special structures made of durable plates are installed, in particular, on tanks and hundreds of frontline vehicles. Metinvest’s steel is also used to produce screens to counter enemy FPV drones (separately for different models: T-64 and T-72 tanks, and M1 Abrams and Bradley infantry fighting vehicles).
The metal products are also used to manufacture vehicles, such as mobile buggies, which have been supplied to the front in bulk for over a year. Since March 2023, Metinvest-SMC has been shipping metal for them at the request of the Operational Command South. These vehicles for small combat groups provide manoeuvrability for Ukrainian defenders, enabling them to overcome offroad conditions, conduct reconnaissance and inflict quick strikes on the enemy. A new batch of buggies was dispatched to the front line just this month, and in total, the military has already received 150 of these vehicles.
Shelters for the military: from “steel hideouts” to underground command posts
Last year, Metinvest launched mass production of mobile shelters and underground command posts for the Ukrainian army.
The Group’s in-house design — metal shelters for trenches, also called “steel hideouts” — can withstand 152-millimetre shells when installed underground and can accommodate six people. They include beds, storage compartments for weapons and belongings, and even a field stove. These safety structures, made of two tonnes of corrugated steel each, can be easily assembled and disassembled, which ensures their mobility. The Group has already supplied over 500 of these mobile capsules to the front free of charge.
The next step involved much larger metal structures for shelter. Metinvest developed and launched the production of underground command posts designed for dozens of people from the Ukrainian armed forces command on the front line. Essentially, these are steel headquarters, a structure of five or six separate mobile bunkers, each of which has a functional purpose: living quarters, command headquarters, sanitary facilities and so on.
Another development is a shelter for military equipment. Since last summer, the Group has been producing and delivering to the front engineering structures designed to protect equipment from enemy drones. As such, they are also called “lancet catchers”. Each shelter weighs around one tonne and consists of a steel frame and chain-link mesh with camouflage elements stretched over it. It is important that they can be quickly installed, dismantled and moved to the desired location. Moreover, they have been designed to be as versatile as possible: suitable for camouflaging and protecting most models of Ukrainian military vehicles at the front. This includes tanks, self-propelled artillery, large vehicles and so on. It has been a year since Metinvest launched production of “lancet catchers” (up to five units per month), and the defence forces have already received more than 60 of them.
As part of Rinat Akhmetov’s Steel Front initiative, together with the military, the Group is actively building engineering and fortification lines, the total length of which has already reached 200 kilometres. In addition, Metinvest provides specialists, materials and special equipment for the construction of defence lines. In particular, more than 40 “hideouts” have been installed inside the fortifications.
Anti-mine rollers
Shelters are just one way to save the lives of soldiers and equipment. It is equally important to protect Ukraine’s armed forces from mines on the front line. As such, in October last year, Metinvest launched mass production of mine trawls, paired rollers that can be mounted on any tank model used by the country’s military and take over detonation in case of a collision with an explosive object. This improved design of the Soviet KMT-7 can withstand up to eight explosions.
One set of rollers is 6.5 tonnes in weight and 3.77 x 3.44 metres in size, and costs UAH2.5 million, including additional installation equipment. In total, the Group has already provided the army with dozens of its mine trawls. As for the additional equipment, it helps to significantly extend the service life of the rollers. In many cases, even damaged trawls at the front are suitable for prompt repair, so Metinvest produces and supplies spare components for them to Ukraine’s military.
Free-of-charge production for the army’s needs is continuing, and the government has recently started submitting orders for specific products. The support will continue to grow, as steel, armour steel and products made from it will remain the top priority for the army.