Metinvest
The GLOBSEC Forum is one of Europe’s leading platforms dedicated to security, defense, and foreign policy, organized since 2005 by the GLOBSEC think tank.
Over 2,000 participants from 86 countries attended the forum, including high-ranking officials, representatives of NATO and the EU, governments, the defense industry, the business world, the technology sector, and the expert community. Participants discussed European security, defense readiness, industrial resilience, innovation, and Europe’s ability to adapt more quickly to new wartime realities.
Yuriy Ryzhenkov participated in a panel titled “Learning at War Speed: Ukraine and the Future of European Warfare.” The discussion also included representatives of NATO’s supreme command, the Polish Armed Forces, and a board member of a Ukrainian defense technology company.
According to the CEO of Metinvest, the group has been operating under wartime conditions and facing continuous risk for over a decade.
“We are closest to the front line – operating about 20 kilometers from the combat line in the Zaporizhzhia region. As a group, we have been on the front line since the beginning of the war in 2014,” he said.
Metinvest Group started with a traditional model of cooperation with the military: development, certification, testing, and then bringing finished products to market. However, after February 2022, it became clear that standard business processes were no longer effective in the face of wartime challenges. The pace of change, adaptability, and effective communication between the military and civilian industry became crucial.
“In the regions where we operate, we work closely with the military. Since the full-scale war began, the pace of communication has significantly increased, and we had to learn how to create new products – from concept to actual front-line testing – within weeks, not years, as was the case before. When war starts to affect you, you realize how peaceful applications can be transformed into military applications,” Ryzhenkov added.
Since then, Metinvest Group has launched several hundred military-grade products, including underground steel shelters, NATO Role 2 hospitals, and protection for military equipment such as Patriot systems, Leopard tanks, and others.
“The pace is only increasing. This is the only way to defeat the enemy in any war,” said the CEO of Metinvest.
According to Ryzhenkov, to meet wartime conditions, Ukrainian industrial enterprises must take action in several key areas.
First, they must ensure their employees are safe and can perform their duties under such conditions.
Second, they must create an efficient logistics system: ensure the transport of products to and from the plant, guarantee raw material supplies, and quickly organize order fulfillment.
Third, they must accelerate the product cycle: shorten the time from development to implementation and constantly improve solutions.
Fourth, people remain the key resource that makes all this possible. Ukraine, like Europe, has long been on a path of deindustrialization and is losing skilled industrial and engineering personnel, including welders, electricians, and engineers.
“The war has shown that people are the most valuable resource. Yes, we understand the role of IT specialists, but without welders, electricians, and engineers, there would be no fortified positions or a stable line of defense. Ukraine has gained significant experience at the intersection of the military and industrial sectors: what can and should be done before the war, how to act during it, and how to prepare in advance. This is precisely the experience Ukraine can share with Europe,” Yuriy Ryzhenkov emphasized.
Metinvest
Metinvest is a vertically integrated group of steel and mining companies that manages every link of the value chain, from mining and processing iron ore and coal to producing and selling semi-finished and finished steel products. It includes steel production and mining facilities located in Ukraine, the EU, the UK, and the USA, as well as a sales network covering all key global markets, including Poland.
LINK TO WEBSITE: www.metinvestholding.com/pl
