Kyiv's court of appeals on May 11 for the third time postponed a hearing of the case on collection of doubtful debt from National Nuclear Generating Company Energoatom, and the company's accounts remained blocked, the press service of Energoatom has reported.

"On April 6 and April 12, 2016 the court postponed the hearing. This time the court rescheuded it for May 17 with a reference to Ukrelektrovat's petition, as the company’s representative injured his leg and the prosecutor was not present at the hearing. Lawyers for Energoatom opposed the satisfaction of the petition and postponement of the hearing, as the court knows the position of Ukrelektrovat, and it is not obligatory that the prosecutor is present at the hearing," the company said.

The press service said that the arrest of Energoatom's accounts and assets worth UAH 200 billion by the law enforcement service actually disabled the economic operations of the largest electricity generating company in the country. All payments for nuclear fuel, nuclear materials and removal of waste nuclear fuel have been halted.

The consequences of the delay in the payments could be a delay in supplies of nuclear fuel to Ukrainian nuclear power plants (NPPs) which would result in a stoppage of reactors. The company would fall short of UAH 10.13 for a day of idle period of one reactor with a capacity of 1,000 MW.

"The arrest of Energoatom's accounts deprived the company of a possibility to service credits in foreign currency. The most difficult is the situation with servicing Euratom's government-secured loan. The State Treasury Service on April 22 paid EUR 1.2 million of credit rates and the principal of the loan to Euratom, as Energoatom failed to settle this transaction due to blocking of its accounts. The stoppage of payments for nuclear fuel would provoke accruing large fines," the company said.