Ukraine's ex-prime minister and Batkivschyna Party leader Yulia Tymoshenko has denied claims that the corporation United Energy Systems of Ukraine (UESU) owes a debt to the Russian Defense Ministry.
"Look at Ukrainian and Russian laws and you will understand that no debt can be reckoned for 15 years.
Then again, the debt has never been the size cited," Tymoshenko said at a press conference on Wednesday.
Reports said earlier that Russian Defense Minister Anatoliy Serdiukov sent a letter to Ukrainian Prime Minister Mykola Azarov requesting repayment of the debt that the corporation, formerly headed by Tymoshenko, owes to the Russian Defense Ministry.
A photocopy of the letter, posted on the website of the Ukrainian newspaper Fokus, says that "the overdue debt amounts to $405.5 million, given an inappropriate implementation of agreements."
The agreements in question are a general agreement dated May 29, 1996, a contract dated July 25, 1996, agreements dated June 11, 1997, and June 30, 1997, on the deliveries of industrial-technological products to the Russian Defense Ministry.
The debt accumulated when Tymoshenko headed the corporation, Fokus said.
The Ukrainian government does not intend to repay the debt that the corporation owed to the Russia Defense Ministry, Azarov said.
