Gazprom considers the arrest of its Ukrainian assets to be an attempt to illegally seize its property under the pretext of implementing the ruling made by the Anti-Monopoly Committee of Ukraine (AMKU) in 2016.

“Gazprom does not recognize the legitimacy of the fine, and considers Ukraine’s actions to be an infringement of its rights,” the company’s report states.

The Russian gas company intends to file a new case at an international arbitration court in connection with the Ukrainian authorities’ violation of their obligations according to the intergovernmental agreement of 1998.

“Gazprom has previously sent Ukraine a notification that it is infringing on its obligations to protect investments. Gazprom is currently preparing a corresponding lawsuit in order to turn to international arbitrators,” the company’s statement reads.

On March 20, Ukrainian Justice Minister Pavlo Petrenko said that the Ukrainian government had seized 100 million hryvnia ($3.8 million) from Gazprom following  the $6.6 billion fine placed on the company. “We have already recovered part of the funds – this is everything that Gazprom effectively had in Ukrainian territory. More than 100 million hryvnia was outlined, arrested, and recovered into Ukraine’s national budget,” the minister said.

At the start of 2016, the AMKU fined Gazprom 86 billion hryvnia, claiming that for almost six years the company had abused its monopoly status in the market for gas transit through Ukraine, infringing on the interests of the company Naftogaz Ukraine.

Gazprom refused to pay, and appealed the AMKU’s decision in court, but did not achieve a revocation of the fine. The Kyiv Commercial Court subsequently ruled that it was necessary to enforce the recovery of the fine and penalty imposed by the AMKU. In February 2017, the Kyiv Commercial Court dismissed Gazprom’s appeal, and on May 16, the Supreme Commercial Court of Ukraine did the same thing with the Russian company’s cassation appeal.

  Gazprom, Ukraine

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