A report about the mass workforce reduction at the Roshen factory in Lipetsk, part of Ukraine's Roshen Corporation) has been sent to the labor and employment department of Lipetsk region, First Deputy Department Head Viktor Kirey has told Interfax.

He said that a total of 697 people will be dismissed at the factory.

"Around a half of employees will be fired in April and May and the rest – by November," Kirey said.

The department intends to help the factory's employees to find new jobs.

"Soon lists with personal data will be submitted, and then we will talk to the employees and look for options," Kirey said.

As reported, Roshen Corporation decided to discontinue the production operations of the Lipetsk confectionary factory starting from April 2017.

Roshen, one of Ukraine's largest makers of confectionaries, has confectionary factories in Kyiv, Mariupol (Donetsk region), Kremenchuk (Poltava region), two in Vinnytsia, one in Lipetsk, one in Klaipeda, Lithuania, and one, BonbonettiChoco, in Hungary. The corporation also owns the Bershadmoloko dairy plant and Litynskplemzavod, both in the Vinnytsia region.

The corporation's owner is Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko. During the election campaign he promised to sell Roshen, to which end he hired two investment firms, Rothschild and Investment Capital Ukraine (ICU). However, due to the absence of buyers, an agreement was signed in January 2016 whereby Poroshenko transferred his share in the corporation to an independent blind trust. The trust's managing bank also has a four-year power of attorney to negotiate a sale of the assets.