Rinat Akhmetov: Ukraine's Richest Man, and Most Complicated Backer.

Across the Russian-Ukrainian War, here's the most important figure that most people have never heard of. According to some, he's a businessman, cunning, calculated, and able to maximize his own profit in an exceptionally difficult situation. According to others, he's a reformed crime lord, or perhaps not so reformed after all.

According to others, he is a savior to the Ukrainian cause, a man without whom the nation likely would have collapsed under the strain of war. And according to some, he is a shadow leader, puppeteering the Ukrainian state against the would of its president and behind the backs of its people.

His name is Reinart Akmitov, and if one thing about him is clear, it's that Akmitov is among the most complicated yet critically important characters in the story of the war in Ukraine.