You're reading: Voice of America: Eastern Ukraine oligarchs seek to avoid economic disaster

MARIUPOL — Smoke billows from Azovstal steel works here, one of the many gargantuan industrial assets in this southeastern port city owned by Ukraine’s richest man, Rinat Akhmetov. Akhmetov employs more than 300,000 people across the region. This plant alone produces 4 million to 5 million tons of steel each year for markets around the world.

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