‘This is not the time to buy yachts’: Ukrainian billionaire Mohammad Zahoor calls on super rich to help more

Ukraine’s richest expat has called on Europe’s wealthy elite to do more to help support the country’s fight against Russia.

Pakistan-born billionaire Mohammad Zahoor, who currently lives in Hampstead, north London, says he has spent the best part of £100m on helping Ukrainian soldiers and refugees.

The 67-year-old has covered the costs of millions of items of body armour, helmets and night vision goggles for Ukrainian soldiers, as well as second-hand SUVs for the country’s forces. He has also hired large hotel complexes to house refugees fleeing the war.

But he says Europe’s super rich need to go further if Vladimir Putin is to be defeated.

Asked what fellow billionaires should be doing, he told i: “They have super responsibility. They have double responsibility. This is not the time to buy yachts, or airplanes or enjoying the life, this is the time to give it back.”

“I would not have used this money somewhere else,” he said, speaking from his London mansion. “But when it comes to Ukraine, the country you love, the country you think is your second home, then it doesn’t matter, actually, how you feel. You feel like spending that money because you have to.”

The steel magnate moved from Karachi, Pakistan, to the Soviet Union as a teenager to access university. After qualifying as an engineer, he worked for a steel factory which he went on to buy, eventually selling a string of factories for a reported $1bn in 2009.

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He used some of his wealth to acquire the Kyiv Post, the English language newspaper and the country’s most prominent in favour of closer ties with Europe.

He said: “We have sent millions of pieces [of equipment]. One body armour costs about $600 to $800, so you give like one hundred pieces to a battalion, it’s a lot. We give SUVs, they’re also needed. And on top of that we are collecting donations around the world – from Poland, Germany [and] Ukraine.

“This war is not only about Ukraine. This war is being fought on the border of EU, so it’s a war of Europe in fact.

“Maybe some of those are not doing enough, but there’s a lot of people doing a lot. I am not talking only about billionaires, there’s a lot of normal people doing a lot.”

A five star hotel Mr Zahoor owns in central Kyiv is now used by soldiers as a look out for Russians on the move.

“We have given our properties there to the army as well. The Russians are quite close, so there are snipers sitting on the top now. We have given our vehicles which were there to the locals, to territorial defence teams.”

The steel magnate says the cost of keeping his businesses afloat in Ukraine exceeds the considerable costs of donations to the front line. However, the exact sum he has spent remains unknown.

“When the war is over, we will sit down and audit how much we have lost and donated.”