You're reading: Yatsenyuk says criminal proceedings brought against Yanukovych-Firtash-Liovochkin group over attempt to make Odesa port-side plant bankrupt

Ostchem of Group DF owned by Dmytro Firtash has sold natural gas to Odesa port-side chemical plant at an overstated price to bring it to bankruptcy, therefore the Interior Ministry has opened criminal proceedings, Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk has said.

“The Interior Ministry has launched criminal proceedings. They [Ostchem] made a debt of hundreds of millions of dollars there when intentionally sold natural gas at an inflated price to bring to plant to bankruptcy,” Yatsenyuk said at an expanded meeting of the Energy and Coal Industry Ministry in Kyiv.

“This is the group of Yanukovych-Firtash-Liovochkin. Damage to the state was inflicted, and the Interior Ministry began criminal proceedings,” Yatsenyuk said.

The prime minister said that natural gas belonging to Ostchem and stored in Ukrainian underground gas storage facilities was arrested, and Naftogaz Ukrainy Head Andriy Kobolev added that the debt of the Ostchem companies to Naftogaz, taking into account fines and penalties, is about 6 billion cubic meters.

“I ask the Interior Ministry to complete the procedure of debt repayment,” Yatsenyuk said.

State-owned Odesa port-side chemical plant is engaged in the production of chemical products, as well as ammonia transshipment by sea.