Chechen Factions Loot Mariupol’s Steel Plants, Report Says

What remained of the steel plants in Ukraine’s Mariupol are now war trophies for Chechen figures affiliated with the enclave’s strongman Ramzan Kadyrov, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported.

While Azovstal, one of the plants that saw Ukrainian troops’ defiant last stand before Mariupol was captured by Russia, was largely destroyed, its crosstown peer, the Ilyich Iron and Steel Works, remains largely intact and has been a treasure trove of war trophies, noted the WSJ. Taxes from both plants once supplied more than a third of the city’s budget.

The WSJ, citing local occupation authorities, said the Ilyich plant, under new management, has exported 130,000 tons of iron byproducts potentially valued at $16 million between October 2023 and March 2024 following the Russian occupation.

The publication, citing Russian corporate records, tied the new management to Valid Vakhitovich Korchagin and Yuri Murai, who registered the plant as LLC Ilyich MMK in August 2022.

Korchagin is the 25-year-old son of Kadyrov’s lieutenant Vakhit Geremeev and Murai is a “military-connected Russian businessman,” said the WSJ. The publication also cited footage and comments from when Geremeev visited the plant after Moscow captured the city.

“There were a lot of corpses,” Geremeev was quoted saying in an interview with pro-Russian Mariupol media in early 2024. In another interview with pro-Russian media, he mentioned plans to restore the plant’s operation by 2026.

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“I have already fallen in love with it, I have almost become a metallurgist,” Geremeev was quoted as saying.

Kadyrov’s troops took part in capturing Mariupol, though how active of a role they played remains a subject of debate as evidence pointed towards the Chechen troops being in second echelon to secure positions, a role marred by numerous looting claims.

Citing various databases, the WSJ said products made by the plant were exported to Russia and other post-Soviet nations such as Uzbekistan: In September 2022, a Moscow-based trader reportedly bought steel cargoes valued at $380,000; In January 2023, $50,000 of metals were exported to Uzbekistan.

Metinvest, the plant’s former owner, also told WSJ that the new management dismantled and sent to Russia a production line valued at $220 million that the former installed prior to the full-scale invasion.

Similar plundering claims were made in a June 2023 report by The Moscow Times, where Metinvest said Russia stole $600 million worth of steel from factories and ports in occupied Ukrainian territories.

Bohdan Bernatskyi, an investigator at Project Expedite Justice, a nonprofit organization tracking looting in Russian-occupied Ukraine, told the WSJ the takeover is similar to Russia’s Wagner group’s operation in Africa.

“The takeover of economic resources by [Russian President Vladimir] Putin’s allies appears to be a well-organized looting enterprise,” said Bernatskyi.

Kadyrov, Geremeev, Korchagin, Murai and the Kremlin didn’t return the WSJ’s requests for comment.