Sanctions imposed by the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine (NSDC) and approved by the president on former people's deputy Vadim Novinsky, who is one of the shareholders of the Metinvest mining and metallurgical group, will not affect the group's activities.

"Metinvest Group states that the sanctions imposed by the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine against Mr. Vadim Novinsky are personal and will in no way affect stable operations of the Group's enterprises. Mr. Vadim Novinsky indrectly owns 23.76% of Metinvest B.V.'s shares, is not an ultimate beneficial owner of the company, and does not exercise actual control over it," the group said in a statement released on Tuesday regarding the application of personal sanctions by the National Security and Defense Council against Novinsky.

At the same time, Metinvest will continue its operations, including the shipment of its products to customers and timely payment of remuneration to its employees. Also, despite Russia's military invasion of Ukraine, the Group will not stop fulfilling all its social obligations and will continue to pay taxes, support the Armed Forces of Ukraine as part of the Rinat Akhmetov's Steel Front initiative, and aid Ukrainian civilians as part of the Saving Lives humanitarian effort.

According to the statement, over the nine months of the war, Metinvest has spent and donated UAH 2.2 billion to assist Ukraine and Ukrainians, including UAH 1.4 billion to support the country's defence forces fighting the aggressor. The Group has paid almost UAH 18 billion in taxes and fees to budgets at all levels in Ukraine over the first nine months of 2022 (including associated companies and joint ventures).

As reported, on December 2, 2022, the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine imposed sanctions against, in particular, former MP Vadim Novinsky. Earlier, Zelensky, by his decree, put into effect the decision of the National Security and Defense Council on certain aspects of the activities of religious organizations in Ukraine and the application of personal special economic and other restrictive measures (sanctions).

Metinvest is a vertically integrated group of mining and metallurgical enterprises. The group's enterprises are located mainly in the Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhia and Dnipropetrovsk regions.

The main shareholders of the holding are the SCM group (71.24%) and Vadim Novinsky's Smart Holding (23.76%), which jointly managed it.