Ukraine’s eastern region has been heavily industrialized since the 1800s. The area used to generate 16 percent of Ukraine’s gross domestic product, although that has taken a hit since the Russian-backed war broke out in Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts.
And in fact, much of the Donbas’s early industry was set up not by the region’s former czarist Russian rulers, but rather by businessmen from the Western European nation of Belgium.
Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts are dotted with industrial enterprises that were founded by Belgians in the 19th century, and others that are operated by Belgium-based multinationals today.
And Belgium continues to industrialize the region today – a new wind power station at Novy Azov, for example, supplies the area with 1,200 kilowatts of energy. And in spite of the continuing war, a Belgian clay mining firm has also resolved to keep operating in the region.
Arrival in Donbas
The Donbas’s abundance of natural resources made it a magnet for foreign industry at the end of the 19th century.
Foreign investors flocked to the region for its steel and coal reserves. Among them were the Belgians, who were heirs at the time to a global resource empire.
By the dawn of the 20th century, more than 80 Belgian factories were operating in the Donbas.
According to an essay by writer Evgeny Fialko, from the Donetsk Oblast town of Druzhkivka, the Donbas was called “the 10th province of Belgium” at the start of the 20th century, because so many people from the Western European country had come to the region. The town of Druzhkivka itself is laid out around a machine-building plant that was constructed there by a Belgian firm in 1893.
In June, the Belgian Embassy sponsored an exhibition focusing on 19th century investment in the Donbas, which toured six non-occupied cities in the region.
Igor Tkach, Ukraine country director of Belgian clay mining firm Sibelco, was at the exhibition’s opening in Sloviansk.
“Donetsk was the metallurgical capital at the time,” Tkach said.
Clay city
Tkach’s company mines clay around the Donetsk towns of Slovyansk and Mertsalove. The company is one of the main clay miners and exporters in Ukraine, second only to oligarch Rinat Akhmetov’s System Capital Management.
“We’re neighbors,” Tkach said, pointing out that the companies operate in the same area of the Donbas.
Sibelco did not come to Ukraine by itself. Rather, the Belgian multinational in 2001 merged with British firm WWB, which had in 1995 combined with Ukrainian company “Donbas Clay” to begin mining in the country’s east.
Now, Sibelco-Ukraine exports its clay products through Mykolaiv port, mainly to Western Europe, from two sites in Donetsk Oblast and one site outside Kharkiv.
Personnel evacuated
When Russian-backed separatists stormed Slovyansk in April 2014, Sibelco had a dilemma.
“We have an office in Slovyansk,” Tkach said. “It had to be closed and the personnel evacuated.”
Ukrainian troops have since pushed Russian-backed forces back to a frontline position outside of Donetsk, and Sibelco has been able to restore its operations in Slovyansk.
Tkach added that Sibelco had plans for further investment in Ukraine before the war began, including the potential addition of value-added production facilities, but that the company had decided on a policy of “continuation” instead.
“These plans might be restarted when we can say that the situation in the east has stabilized,” Tkach said. “No proper investors will take the big risk of putting in money under the unfortunate current conditions.”
Ukraine has four times the population of Belgium, with 11 million people, yet four times less than per-capita gross domestic product.
Other Belgian firms have also capitalized on the country’s ties to the Donbas, albeit in an entirely different manner.
Belgian video game developer Lugus Studios released a free mobile phone game in May 2015 called “Battle for Donetsk,” in which players take roles either as the Ukrainian government or as the Russian-backed forces.
Despite its name, the game does not glorify the war in the Donbas. If the player fires, the game is automatically lost after 60 seconds, with a casualty count appearing on the screen. The only way to win the game is to do nothing for 60 seconds.
“A lot of people were saying that they knew people who died and that they had lost a lot of things,” said Lugus Studios Co-founder Kevin Haelterman. “There were actual fighters from the conflict that played it.”
“It’s a war game with an anti-war message,” said Haelterman, noting that the game was the most-played game that the company had ever made, at 600,000 downloads.
Haelterman added that the company got “a lot of emails from both sides of the conflict” after the game was released.
