The losses of national energy company Ukrenergo from the annexation of Crimea have been assessed at billions of hryvnias, acting head of Ukrenergo Yuriy Kasich said in an exclusive interview with Interfax-Ukraine.

"We’ve passed all the required documents. Preliminarily the losses of Ukrenergo from the annexation of Crimea are assessed at around UAH 1.44 billion. However, this is not the sum that could be claimed, as this could be the written-down value or the assessment was conducted a long time ago. If we assess today, the sum would be several times bigger, even not taking into account the lost benefit," he said.

Kasich said that along with electricity facilities, Ukrenergo has lost recreation bases and a training center for its employees.

"It's hard to estimate the losses in pecuniary terms for many facilities, for example, the Heliotherm training center… This center on the southern coast of the Black Sea had very good equipment from the point of view of training, PC rooms and recreation and sports. Ukrenergo had two large recreation bases in Crimea where earlier there were almost no vacant rooms," he said.

Kasich said that electricity supplies from the Ukrainian mainland to the peninsula totaled around 2 billion kilowatt-hours in January-May 2015. The contract foresees supply of up to 550 kilowatt-hours a month.

As reported, in the middle of May First Deputy Justice Minister of Ukraine Natalia Sevostyanova said that Ukraine has demanded that Russia pays around UAH 1 trillion as compensation for the loss of enterprises in Crimea, however this figure may be adjusted. She said that the lawsuit mentions around 4,000 companies which lost their property as a result of the annexation of Crimea.

In addition, they are currently verifying the ownership claims of the enterprises listed in the lawsuit, as well as the possibility of putting more companies in Crimea on this list.

In turn, Deputy Justice Minister Anton Yanchuk said that at present it was difficult to name the exact amount of compensation, as the compensation procedure and which lost assets will be paid for is being worked out.

Ukrenergo operates Ukraine's backbone and interstate transmission lines, as well as supervising the country's national grid. It is a state-owned company and is controlled by the Ukrainian Energy and Coal Industry Ministry.