The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) has opened a criminal investigation into steel manufacturer ArcelorMittal for air pollution in Kryvyi Rih, President Volodymyr Zelensky’s hometown.
The SBU announced the investigation in a July 17 statement. It did not name “the private industrial enterprise” accused of “ecocide” — extensive damage to the environment — but the target was obviously ArcelorMittal, the largest steel plant in the country, which is based in Kryvyi Rih, a city of 635,000 people located more than 400 kilometers southeast of Kyiv.
Just days earlier, on July 12, Zelensky had visited Kryvyi Rih, one of the most polluted cities in the country, and criticized ArcelorMittal for failing to reduce toxic emissions that harm the health of city residents.
In a July 17 statement, the company said it has not received any official information regarding the probe, but is ready to cooperate with investigators.
Its emissions have been within the permitted limits, the company said, and hinted that it could be facing political retribution ahead of the parliamentary vote on July 21. Polls indicate that Zelensky’s party is likely to be the biggest winner in the election.
“We hope the increased attention to our enterprise from state agencies and various political forces and the launch of an investigation by SBU on the eve of the elections is a coincidence and doesn’t indicate deliberate pressure on business,” the statement read.
Zelensky and the de-facto head of the security service, Ivan Bakanov, his childhood friend, are natives of Kryvyi Rih. Prior to heading the SBU, Bakanov was the leader of Zelensky’s newly-formed party, Servant of the People.
While visiting his hometown on July 12 as part of his tour of Ukraine’s regions, Zelensky took representatives of ArcelorMittal to task for not fulfilling its commitments to cut emissions. He said the plant failed to upgrade equipment, build a new waste disposal site, and switch to clean sources of energy by 2016-2018. However, company representatives said the deadline was moved to at least 2020 or 2021.
“Why do people have to suffer from your failure to keep up with plans?” Zelensky asked. The president suggested the company pay compensation to citizens who became ill with cancer-related diseases as a result of industrial pollution.
ArcelorMittal’s acting general director, Oleksandr Ivanov, said that the plant has lowered emissions by 48 percent in 13 years and invested $4.4 billion in modernizing its steel mills.
“You can blame us for not completing six points out of 48. Nevertheless, we plan to invest $1.8 billion in production, and it will be our environmental protection measures,” Ivanov responded to the president.
Residents have been sounding the alarm about air pollution for years and organized a public movement called “Stop poisoning Kryvyi Rih.” Similar initiatives exist in other industrial cities like Dnipro, Kharkiv, Zaporizhia, and Mariupol.
Photos and videos regularly appear on social media showing reddish-brown smoke or thick grey clouds hanging above residential neighborhoods close to the steel plants.
Research in 2018 by Czech and Ukrainian ecologists found increased levels of heavy metals in the rivers and soils of Kryvyi Rih, as well as dioxins and dioxin-like compounds — cancer-causing chemicals — in free-range chicken eggs.
“Industry is good, but people should not suffer from dirty production,” said Olena Shafranova, a member of “Stop poisoning Kryvyi Rih.”
“The companies take responsibility to fulfill a set of environmental measures but the deadlines are not met or constantly postponed. ArcelorMittal isn’t the only guilty party, but it accounts for 80 percent of all hazardous emissions in the city.”
Shafranova says she decided to get involved in the campaign for clean air after her daughter started having bronchitis frequently and was nearly diagnosed with asthma. Sharfranova says respiratory diseases are common among local children.
She was present at the July 12 meeting when Zelensky publicly reprimanded ArcelorMittal.
“I want to believe he was sincere. He is from here, and his elderly parents still live in Kryvyi Rih,” she told the Kyiv Post.
