Two Russian oligarchs speak out against war in Ukraine

Russian oligarchs Mikhail Fridman and Oleg Deripaska have called for the war in Ukraine to end, even while many in the country's business elite have stayed silent.

Fridman, born in west Ukraine, described the conflict as a "tragedy" and called on the "bloodshed" to end in a letter he sent to staff at his London-based private equity firm LetterOne on February 25, according to the Financial Times. He said he was "convinced" that "war can never be the answer."

"While a solution seems frighteningly far off, I can only join those whose fervent desire is for the bloodshed to end. I'm sure my partners share my view," he said.

Fridman is estimated to have a fortune of $15.5bn, according to the Russian edition of Forbes. His LetterOne group is a shareholder in German gas company Wintershall Dea, which has significant upstream operations in Russia. Unlike BP, Equinor and Shell, Wintershall Dea is yet to announce plans to withdraw from Russia in response to Moscow's invasion of Ukraine.

The EU imposed sanctions against Fridman and other Russian oligarchs on February 28, introducing travel bans and freezing their assets inside the bloc. 

Meanwhile Deripaska used a post on Telegram to call for peace talks to start "as fast as possible."

Forbes estimates Deripaska's wealth at $3.9bn. The founder of Russian aluminium group Rusal has not been placed under EU sanctions, but he was added to the US sanctions blacklist in April 2018.

"Peace is very important," he said.