Mohammad Zahoor

Mohammad Zahoor (born 1 August 1955) is a Ukraine-based British-Pakistani businessman and philanthropist. He is the founder and owner of the ISTIL Group, a diversified trading company that included a steel mill in Donetsk, which he sold in 2009 for between US$700 million and US$1 billion; a former owner of the Kyiv Post, which he sold for approximately $5 million; and a co-founder of the YUNA music awards. Since the beginning of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Zahoor has mobilized funds and aid to evacuate Ukrainian refugees to the United Kingdom and other parts of Europe. He has reportedly bought two fighter jets for the Ukrainian military, and has continued to meet with various heads of state and other influential figures to ensure safe passage for Ukrainian refugees. Early life Zahoor was born to a Muhajir family in Karachi, Pakistan. His father was in the Pakistani Civil Service. During his first year at NED University of Engineering and Technology in 1974, he received a scholarship to pursue higher education in the Soviet Union. Zahoor studied metallurgy at Donetsk National Technical University (then Donetsk Polytechnic Institute) in the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic; he later obtained his PhD from the same university in 2007.