Maxim Timchenko, chief executive of DTEK, Ukraine’s biggest energy company, knows about the value of people. This week the company announced three of its employees had lost their lives in the conflict: two in the armed forces fighting the Russian invasion, another “as a result of the hostilities”.

“Their memory will forever be in our hearts,” Timchenko said in a press statement.

But he added to those thoughts as he reflected on leadership during the war. In comments to Board Agenda during a press briefing on Thursday, Timchenko says his ability to keep DTEK running is built on values that identify people as DTEK’s most “valuable asset”, as well as building trust between his employees and the company.

“If there is trust,” says Timchenko, employees will “do whatever is necessary or even more…”.

DTEK is one of many major companies attempting to continue operating following the Russian invasion. Ukraine is home to a number of internationally renowned corporates, including a handful listed in London. Board Agenda has heard from individuals from the business sector sheltering from bombardment in Kyiv while one executive highlighted his “suicide drivers” currently attempting food deliveries around the country.

Despite the horrors faced by Ukraine’s people and war on several fronts, Timchenko’s briefing to international press reveals a company with organisational structures still intact and a leadership with a clear view of the challenges facing the group and its subsidiaries.

DTEK mines for coal, extracts gas, runs nuclear power plants and supplies electricity across Ukraine’s energy network. It was established in 2005 in Donetsk, in the Donbas region of Ukraine, currently under Russian control, and employs 70,000 people.

Under martial law Timchenko now has sole responsibility for the company and maintaining energy supplies in Ukraine, though he adds his board has been supportive. He and a 20-strong management team are now in the west of the country managing operations.

All mines are currently working normally as are oil and gas facilities. He says the Russians have not targeted DTEK’s energy infrastructure but intense fighting has taken out electricity supply in some areas, including Donetsk. He has crews on the ground reconnecting towns and villages, but some places remain no-go zones.

On Wednesday this week, DTEK employees were among the people attempting to peacefully blockade the city of Enerhodar, home to DTEK’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, from Russian units. (DTEK’s press briefing took place before the fire that broke out in the plant Thursday night following Russian artillery action. At the time of writing, reports suggest the fire is out and the plant is safe).

Calm leadership

Timchenko says the current war reminds him of the conflict in 2014–15 when Russia annexed Crimea. That conflict gave DTEK the blueprint for crisis response with emergency teams in each of the group’s production companies.

“We know what to do, what actions should be taken. Everybody stays calm and we try to lead not only DTEK but the whole industry, based on our experience of 2014.”

Those events gave DTEK other valuable lessons, particularly in “what kind of people can become ‘frontline’ and lead the process,” Timchenko adds.

“In my opinion what is important is that you have people who can lead their departments in peacetime and in war.

“And it’s about values; what values we have in the company, our corporate values, and what we say is that our most important valuable asset is people.

“It’s not just words, it’s part of our DNA… We prove it by educating our people in DTEK’s academy, we prove it when we give them ambitious goals in business development and opportunities to realise themselves; we prove it now when we evacuate hundreds of people from the cities.”

He continues: “Every day we have discussions for each of our companies: either its coal production, or gas production or power distribution. And what is important is the ability to make quick decisions and take full responsibility for those decisions.

“But the most important topic we discuss is the safety of our people.”

‘We are key to generating tax revenues’

Other companies remain in business too. One company still managing to operate is London-listed Ferrexpo, Ukraine’s biggest producer of iron ore pellets (third largest in the world) employing 10,000 people.

Ferrexpo’s five-person management team—including group CEO Jim North and finance chief Nikolay Kladiev—currently work from five different countries. Viktor Latous, a former chief engineer and now general director of Ferrexpo Poltava Mining is on site in Ukraine.

Production is based at the purpose-built city of Horishni Plavni on the left bank of River Dnieper in the centre of the country, some distance from the fighting. The company’s leaders currently meet every morning to discuss the day ahead.

“The management team of the operation are very much still leading the business locally, as they have done for the past 15 years,” says Rob Simmons, a spokesman for the company.

“We are still producing pellets, we are still exporting pellets via western Ukraine and we have deliveries of key consumables required for production coming in.”

Ferrexpo’s workforce comes largely from the nearby city. Those who are not essential to production have been “demobilised” while the company has moved to provide essential services to those who continue to work, including childcare facilities on site following the closure of schools. Shift patterns have had to adjust to meet curfew restrictions. The company has also established a humanitarian fund buying food and medicines.

The continuing efforts of Ferrexpo managers is essential to the Ukrainian war effort, says Simmons. “At a time like this the company and government are intertwined and even more so than ever,” says Simmons. “Industry in the south is being forced to close, because of the conflict but also because of an inability to either receive materials or export product.

“We are key to generating tax revenues for the country now. In normal times we represent three or four percent of export revenues.”

Simmons says Ferrexpo continues to pay taxes to Ukraine’s treasury, and was part of a wave of companies that made advance payments ahead of the conflict.

Political and military leadership are essential to Ukraine at this moment, but the country also relies on large companies for essential services and revenues. Under these extreme conditions, effective corporate leadership is critical. Ukraine’s executives are giving a lesson to the world in how it’s done.