Justice Minister of Ukraine Pavlo Petrenko predicts that in the near term the fine under an award issued by the Arbitration Institute of the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce would be enforced from Russia's Gazprom.

"I am sure that Gazprom has no chances to avoid responsibility. The amount of debt approved by the tribunal award will only increase. It will be fully recovered in the near future," the justice minister told reporters in Kyiv on Thursday.

According to him, the attempts of Russia to ignore the decision of the arbitration tribunal will not succeed.

"Ostriches hide their heads in the sand, but the other part of the body remains on top. This "other part of the body" is assets, property that is owned by Gazprom around the world," Petrenko said.

He also said that the Ministry of Justice is actively working on the arrest and recovery of these assets.

As reported, at the end of February, the Arbitration Institute of the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce satisfied Naftogaz Ukrainy's lawsuits against Gazprom over the breach of contractual obligations for the transit of Russian gas through Ukraine. The tribunal ruled to pay compensation for the volumes that were not supplied, but Gazprom does not comply with the tribunal's award.

The Stockholm arbitration tribunal ordered Gazprom to pay $4.63 billion to Naftogaz for the shortage of the agreed volumes of gas for transit.

Thus, following the results of two arbitration litigations between the companies for the supply and transit of gas, Gazprom is obliged to pay $2.56 billion to Naftogaz.