The Donetsk Regional Economic Court has ordered the Donetsk Railways, which is a regional division of the Ukrainian Railways public joint-stock company (Ukrzaliznytsia), to pay VTB Bank UAH 933 million in debt under several loan agreements concluded in 2013 despite the existence of a law that imposes a moratorium on recovery of the Donetsk Railways’ debts, the CFTS portal reports, citing the UNIAN news agency.
According to court documents, the bank demanded UAH 1.18 billion from Ukrzaliznytsia for violating credit agreements concluded between VTB Bank and the state-owned Donetsk Railways on October 30, 2013.
The court’s decision will enter into effect after the deadline for filing an appeal (20 days after publication of the court’s full decision), unless an appeal is filed.
In 2017, the Ukrainian parliament adopted a law imposing a moratorium on forcible recovery of funds from Ukrzaliznytsia’s bank accounts to pay the debts of the Donetsk Railways, the assets of which are located in the non-government-controlled areas of the Donbas. The parliament extended the moratorium to payment of the Donetsk Railways’ debts by Ukrzaliznytsia on October 19, 2018.
According to Yaroslav Dubnevych, the head of the parliament’s transport committee, the Donetsk Railways’ assets are not included in Ukrzaliznytsia’s authorized capital, and representatives of Russian banks are attempting to recover about UAH 4 billion through exploitation of this legal loophole.
Last year, the Kyiv Economic Court refused to consider a claim filed by the Russian-based Sberbank’s Ukrainian subsidiary, which sought to recover USD 54.95 million from Ukrzaliznytsia under a loan agreement.
VTB Bank has been operating on the Ukrainian market since 1992. It is one of the twenty largest banks in the country by asset size. Vneshtorgbank, a state-owned Russian bank, has owned over 99.9% of the shares in VTB Bank since 2006.
