Putin gave Ilyich plant in Mariupol to Kadyrov as war trophy, – media

Illustrative photo: Ramzan Kadyrov

The Ilyich Iron and Steel Works in Mariupol, temporarily occupied by the Chechen Republic, was handed over to the leader of the Chechen Republic, Ramzan Kadyrov.

Dictator Vladimir Putin gave the region's largest plant as a war trophy as a reward for loyalty. This was reported by journalists from The Wall Street Journal.

As the publication points out, the Mariupol plant is controlled by Ramzan Kadyrov's inner circle, including Ruslan Geremeyev.

Exactly half of the shares of the Ilyich Iron and Steel Works were received by Geremeyev's son, Valid.

Under the “sensitive guidance” of these people, the industrial enterprise is being completely destroyed: trucks filled with rolled products regularly leave the plant's territory and head towards the Russian Federation.

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The $220 million production line, installed literally on the eve of the full-scale invasion, was also successfully dismantled and stolen by the invaders.

– There were a lot of corpses here, everything was mined. However, I fell in love with this plant at first sight and during this time I practically became a metallurgist, — said Vakhit Geremeyev in an interview with a pro-Russian channel in Mariupol.

Then he cynically promised to resume work at the Ilyich plant by 2026 and “protect it from looting.”

However, The Wall Street Journal reported that back in September 2022, a Moscow trading company removed $380,000 worth of steel products from the plant.

Other companies from Russia then regularly sold the coal and other products left there. In January 2023, a batch of hardware worth $50,000 was exported to Uzbekistan.

Prepared by: Sergey Daga