Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has instructed law enforcement agencies to disarm the individuals who remain inside the office of Ukrnafta, Ukraine's oil and gas producer, Head of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) Valentyn Nalyvaichenko has said.
“We confirm the illegal activities of a group of persons, including armed persons, which was registered by both the Interior Ministry and journalists, we confirm that the illegal activities of the so-called Sich structure, which is alternatively called Krok – these are the companies that were established in Dnipropetrovsk. We confirm that this organization has no legal right to operate in Ukraine. There are already clear orders from the president and, as I understand it, the prosecutor general will be in control, and each person who remains in the Ukrnafta [office] must be disarmed very soon, and if they have firearms licenses – these licenses should be revoked,” he said at a briefing in Kyiv on March 23.
According to Nalyvaichenko, the SBU is ready to help the police in detaining those involved and seize the armored KrAZ trucks, which don’t have number plates, which appeared in the center of Kyiv.
As reported, PJSC Ukrnafta said in a statement issued on Monday that it was strengthening its security measures due to commercial activity risks.
Metal fences were installed near the company’s central office in Kyiv on Sunday, March 22.
The Verkhovna Rada recently approved government bill No. 2273, which endorsed the reduction of the quorum for holding shareholders’ meetings to 50 percent plus one share, not from January 1, 2016 as was originally planed, but immediately.
Ukrainian lawmakers and journalists previously reported that unknown persons, who identified themselves as servicemen of the Ukrainian Interior Ministry Dnepr-1 battalion, fenced off the Ukrnafta building on March 22.
“The entrance to Ukrnafta [whose controlling stake is held by the government] has been blocked by machine gunners. After several minutes of argument, the supervisor said he was representing the Dnepr-1 battalion. He declined to say what a territorial defense battalion from the Dnipropetrovsk region was doing there. An armored military vehicle was parked behind the Ukrnafta gate,” MP Serhiy Leschenko (Petro Poroshenko Bloc) wrote on Facebook on March 22 night.
MP Mustafa Nayyem (Petro Poroshenko Bloc) reported that the employees of a security company, which was co-founded by Ukrnafta, remain in the company’s office. According to him, these guards have no right to bear arms. Nayyem also said that head of Dnipropetrovsk Regional Administration Ihor Kolomoisky was in the office on March 23.
The minority shareholders of PJSC Ukrnafta are controlled by Kolomoisky.
