Ukrainian Businessman and Owner of the UKRDONINVEST Group of Companies

Vitaliy Kropachov is a Ukrainian businessman and owner of the UKRDONINVEST group of companies. His main activity is the coal business. He also has assets in the machine-building, construction, and transportation industries. Kropachev also owns media assets, including Era Production and the Ukraine World News TV channel. He is a philanthropist who helps war victims.

He was born on October 4, 1973, in Torez (now Chistyakove), Donetsk Oblast.

He gained his first serious work experience as a commercial director of the Torez Hard Metal Carbide Plant.

In the early 2000s, he was involved in the coal and logistics business in Donbas.

In 2010, he was elected to the Donetsk Regional Council.

In 2011, Kropachev survived an assassination attempt organized by Oleksandr Yanukovych’s entourage to take away his business. These were the logistics company Snizhnepogruztrans and the Chervona Zirka mine.

In 2014, he took part in the creation of the Shakhtarsk volunteer battalion, which fought to return the occupied territories in Donbas to Ukrainian control. For his pro-Ukrainian stance, separatists took away Kropachov’s business and smashed up his office.

The businessman moved to Kyiv and continued to engage in the coal business. Kropachev bought several processing plants in the Ukrainian-controlled part of Donbas, and in 2017 he bought the Krasnolimanska mine from Igor Humeniuk and partners, which eventually became one of the most successful coal enterprises in Ukraine.

In 2017, he established cooperation with the Chinese engineering company Sany Heavy Industries, which produced equipment for coal mining. He wanted to organize the production of Chinese equipment in Ukraine.

In 2019, together with Millstone & Co. investor Robert Kvitkovsky, he began to develop the media business. In the same year, Kropachov acquired from a partner Info24 LLC, which holds a license for satellite broadcasting with the TVi logo, and TRK Pogoda TV LLC, which held a license for the Business TV channel for digital broadcasting within the Zeonbud network.

In the same year, 2019, Kropachev bought the Tak TV channel, which has a satellite license issued to Tak TV Center Plus LLC.

In December 2021, he acquired Era Production. In March of the following year, the company provided its facilities for the digital broadcast of the All-Ukrainian TV Marathon after the Russian missile attack on a TV tower in Kyiv.

In the summer of 2022, he acquired Corona Sunrise, which held a digital license to broadcast Channel 4.

In 2023, he launched the Ukraine World News TV channel.

In the summer of 2022, Vitaliy Kropachov organized a camp near Pereyaslav for internally displaced persons from Donbas. The camp is home to 150 people who lost their homes due to the war. The businessman also helps children affected by Russian aggression.

He is married and has a daughter and son.