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Deputy Prime Minister – Minister for Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories Iryna Vereshchuk, together with the head of the Zaporizhzhia Regional Military Administration Oleksandr Starukh and Metinvest’s Zaporizhstal CEO Oleksandr Myronenko, visited the Humanitarian Coordination Centre operating at Zaporizhstal during her working visit to Zaporizhzhia Oblast on 1 April.

Up to 200 Metinvest employees work as volunteers at the centre every day. All of them have a lot to do as the centre daily receives humanitarian goods such as food, clothes, footwear, household goods, essentials, and medicines. The Centre consolidates assistance both sent from all over Ukraine and purchased under Saving Lives project. The initiative is funded by Metinvest and DTEK operating under the umbrella of SCM, Ukraine’s largest investment group, and supported by the Office of the President of Ukraine in coordination with the Rinat Akhmetov Foundation and administrations of six Ukrainian cities.

According to Oleksandr Myronenko, Zaporizhzhia-based hub has already processed over 1,000 tonnes of humanitarian assistance and there’s more ahead. SCM businesses signed contracts with European partners to deliver aid to Ukraine in March-April 2022. As a result at least 400,000 survival kits were formed under Saving Lives project. Some of them are handed over to local residents, and the rest will make a strategic food reserve for the six cities.

Iryna Vereshchuk could see the concerted efforts of the centre’s volunteers: the team of Metinvest volunteers developed their own pace of operation to avoid any delays or bureaucratic processes. As reported by Oleksandr Myronenko, today alone Metinvest volunteers have formed 8,640 food packages that will help save Ukrainians in the cities and towns that are on the brink of humanitarian disaster due to Russian military aggression. Soon the survival kits will go to the cities and towns where locals need them most.

“Right now we are witnessing how a well-coordinated state is supposed to work at this special time. We are developing the methodology and formulas that can help us become a prosperous country in the future. The efforts of socially responsible businesses as well as national and local authorities are consolidated to address the situation. We see that Metinvest employees become volunteers because they care about the future of the country. All these contribute to the success of Ukraine and gives us hope that we will win. I really hope for that and I wish this for all of us,” Iryna Vereshchuk said.

At the same time, Zaporizhstal CEO Oleksandr Myronenko notes that business is doing everything it can to bring Ukraine closer to victory at all fronts: “We have put ourselves on the humanitarian front line of Ukraine processing and sending a huge volume of humanitarian aid to Ukrainian towns and cities. Metinvest provides support to the Ukrainian Armed Forces and the Territorial Defence by supplying protective gear, NATO standard first-aid kits as well as equipment and by helping build fortifications. After all, we realise the importance of economic front and gradually resume production to ensure flows of currency and tax flows.”

In particular, Deputy Prime Minister – Minister for Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories Iryna Vereshchuk visited local accommodation centres for evacuated Ukrainians as well as Metinvest Humanitarian Mission Coordination Centre which hosts IDPs from Mariupol.