One of the richest businessmen of Ukraine, Oleksiy Vadaturskyi, died in his home together with his wife, Raisa Vadaturska, on July 31, 2022, the result of a direct missile strike during a Russian aerial bombardment. The general director and founder of one Ukraine’s largest agricultural companies, Nibulon, was killed in his home in Mykolaiv.
According to Vitaly Kim, the head of the Mykolaiv Regional Military Administration, this was the heaviest shelling the city has taken during the entire war with about 40 rocket strikes. Presidential advisor Mykhailo Podolyak emphasized that the businessman’s death was an intentional murder.
“Vadaturskyi was one of the largest farmers in the country, a key person in the region and a large employer. The accurate hitting of the missile, not just in the house, but in a specific wing – the bedroom – leaves no doubts about the guidance and adjustment of the impact. Once again: Vadatursky was made a specific target,” Podolyak emphasized.
Vadaturskyi was featured on a 2021 cover of Forbes Ukraine magazine which estimated his fortune at $430 million, ranking him as the 24th richest Ukrainian. Nibulon ranks 20th of “100 largest companies of Ukraine” with an annual turnover of UAH 25.8 billion
Nibulon has considerable holdings in agriculture, technology, and shipbuilding. Founded in 1991, the company transported a record 4.15 million tons of various cargoes on Ukrainian rivers. It’s the largest operator of elevator capacities in Ukraine and the second largest exporter of grain with revenue of 1.5 billion dollars using a fleet built at its own shipyard of 82 barges, tugs and floating cranes.
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Former People’s Deputy Ihor Mosiychuk notes that the deceased businessman was developing alternative ways to export Ukrainian grain to the foreign market, bypassing Odesa’s blockaded ports.
During the full-scale invasion, the entrepreneur remained in Ukraine. His son, Andrii Vadaturskyi, is co-owner of Nibulon and the chairman of the company’s supervisory board. In 2007, Oleksiy was awarded the title of Hero of Ukraine “for a significant personal contribution to strengthening the potential of the agro-industrial complex.”
Russian propragandist Margarita Simonyan reacted to Vadatursky’s death, alleging the businessman sponsored the Ukrainian army. Simonyan, editor-in-chief of the RT channel, Sputnik and Rossiya Segodnya agencies, said that the death of Vadatursky is “denazification in action.”
“It’s a pity that we are once again receiving information from Ukrainian sources that denazification is progressing and progressing correctly,” Simonyan wrote on her Telegram channel.
She also contended she had information that the businessman strongly opposed Russia and fundamentally refused to work with Russian companies. She alleged that Vadatursky “was Poroshenko’s man” and “felt hostility” Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyi, saying his death occurred at the “personal order of the officials” of the President’s Office.
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