(Bloomberg) -- Ukraine’s leader said he may expand an intervention into the economy after authorities used special wartime powers to seize control of five companies, all of which have ties to some of the country’s most powerful oligarchs. 

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy cast the acquisition of holdings in the strategically important companies this week as necessary to bolster the nation’s defense against the Russian invasion, part of an effort in “military-state management.” 

“Some of them hardly worked. Now all of them will work -- for defense,” Zelenskiy said in his regular evening address from Kyiv late Tuesday. “I do not rule out other similar decisions either.”

The president spoke after his government secured shares in engine maker Motor Sich PJSC and public oil producer Ukrnafta PJSC, which is backed by billionaire Igor Kolomoisky. Authorities also targeted truck maker Avtokraz, industrial company Zaporizhtransformator PJSC and an oil-refining company Ukrtatnafta. 

As Ukraine’s military seeks to hold gains from a counteroffensive against Russian forces ahead of the winter, Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov said on Tuesday the government’s decision will help it meet military needs including maintaining fuel supply and the restoration and repair of equipment. The companies will now be managed by the Defense Ministry. 

But beyond wartime aims, all five companies have links with some of the country’s most powerful businessmen. Kolomoisky is a beneficiary owner of a minority stake in Ukrnafta, while Kostyantin Zhevago controls Avtokraz. 

The co-owner of Motor Sich, Vyacheslav Bohuslayev, was detained last month by the state security service. 

Before the invasion began in February, Zelenskiy –- like his predecessors –- had vowed to break the hold over Ukraine’s economy of a small group of billionaires, a long-standing issue for the former Soviet republic, one of Europe’s poorest nations.

Zelenskiy, an entertainer before entering politics, won a landslide victory to the presidency in 2019 partly on a commitment to strip Ukraine’s richest from power. He used his majority in parliament last year to push through legislation increasing scrutiny over oligarchs and their concentration of wealth and media power.

Wealthy figures including former President Petro Poroshenko and Rinat Akhmetov, Ukraine’s wealthiest man, abandoned their media empires, which had been used to attack Zelenskiy and his allies. Zelenskiy also broke with Kolomoisky, once a close ally and business partner.

The government’s decision is “almost revolutionary” as an avenue to strip oligarchs of power, according to Volodymyr Fesenko, head of the Penta research institute in Kyiv.

“This decision has been foremost driven by the logic of war and the state’s security interests,” he said in a Facebook post. “But simultaneously, the logic of stripping oligarchs of power is also working here.” 

Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said on Tuesday that his government was wielding the extraordinary power in accordance with emergency legislation passed in response to the Kremlin’s Feb. 24 invasion. Oleksiy Danilov, secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, said the government will either return the holdings after martial law ends or offer compensation.  

--With assistance from Kateryna Choursina.

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