A controversial Ukrainian billionaire with close ties to President Viktor Yanukovych is co-financing construction of a new campus for Ukrainian Catholic University, based in western Ukraine’s Lviv.
According to a press statement by the Ukrainian Institute in London, Dmytro Firtash, co-owner of Swiss-registered natural gas trader RosUkrEnergo along with Russia’s Gazprom, has joined donors in pledging funds for the $25 million campus.
“This year Dmytro Firtash became a donor of the Ukrainian Catholic University, contributing to the construction of a campus in Lviv,” reads the statement.
The statement was issued after university rector, Rev. Borys Gudziak, attended an event hosted by the Ukrainian Institute in London. Robert Shetler-Jones,a representative of Firtash, was present at the event.
In a telephone interview with the Kyiv Post, Gudziak would not say how much Firtash has given and pledged, only that “it will be a significant donation.”
Gudziak said another group of donors had earlier pledged $12 million.
“We have already received some of this money,” Gudziak said. “We are entering a new stage in fundraising. We’ll announce a new fundraising campaign.”
Firtash did not respond to Kyiv Post inquiries.
Ukrainian Catholic University is not the first educational institution to which Firtash has donated. Thanks to Firtash’s financial contributions, a Ukrainian studies program was established in England’s Cambridge University in 2008.
Kyiv Post Staff Writers Mark Rachkevych and Yuriy Onyshkiv can be reached at [email protected] and [email protected].
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