Russia's PJSC Gazprom has filed a counterclaim against a ruling of Kyiv's business court of appeals ordered to collect UAH 172 billion of a fine and penalty for abuse of monopoly, Head of Ukraine's Antimonopoly Committee Yuriy Terentiev has said.

"The decision of the court of appeals was made. Gazprom challenged the decision, and as soon as we have the ruling that took effect, we would send it to the enforcement service for execution," he said during the Internet conference on Liga.net portal.

"Now the second part is in court. This is the forced collection of the fine. We do not say now that Gazprom would challenge our decision. Now the claim of the committee on collecting the funds under the decision that actually took effect is being heard," he said.

As reported, the Antimonopoly Committee decided in January 2016 to fine Russian gas giant UAH 85 billion for abuse of its monopoly position on the Ukrainian market for transit shipments of natural gas. This decision has been upheld several times by Ukrainian courts. In the latest ruling, on February 22 Kyiv's business court of appeals upheld the ruling of a lower court confirming the order to collect the fine from Gazprom, which has already grown to UAH 172 billion (about $6.4 billion) with fines for nonpayment.