Assassination of a wealthy Ukrainian entrepreneur: what message does Putin want to send?

He was a millionaire and “hero of Ukraine”. A Ukrainian grain entrepreneur was killed on Sunday, July 31, with his wife, in bombings of the city of Mykolaiv, in southern Ukraine. They are Oleksiï Vadatoursky, 74, owner of the main Ukrainian cereal logistics company Niboulon and his wife Raïssa Vadatourska, who were at home at the time of the strikes, according to the Ukrainian authorities.

A pro-European entrepreneur

Oleksiy Vadatursky was the 24th richest Ukrainian on the magazine’s list Forbes in 2021. Before the war, his company exported grain to 70 countries. There is absolutely no doubt as to the will to assassinate precisely Oleksiï Vadatoursky and his wife Raisa Oleksy, they who represented everything that Putin’s Russia considers as an enemy. Oleksiï Vadatoursky, was indeed a very pro-European entrepreneur, reputed to be incorruptible, an ardent defender of Ukraine.

Our special correspondent in Ukraine had met him exclusively for the show Butterfly Effect on Canal+ in 2014, at the start of the Crimean invasion. He had then assembled at his own expense an army of 2,000 men with armored vehicles for the defense of Mykolaiv.

And he made these prescient remarks: “It’s better to put money first to help bring order rather than to lose afterwards. If the Ukrainians abandon their positions and lose their independence, then tomorrow there will be will be a threat to Europe’s borders”.

The war extends to anyone who funds the resistance

Since then, Oleksiï Vadatoursky was on the Kremlin’s red list. This assassination is a new, powerful message sent by Vladimir Putin’s army. The war extends to anyone who funds the resistance. Wealthy Ukrainians who follow or would be tempted to follow Oleksiï Vadatursky’s example are now targets in Ukraine as elsewhere in the world.