The Ukrainian Ministry of Justice hopes to have a legal mechanism set up by autumn to enforce in third countries the court decision on the recovery of the funds Gazprom must pay Ukraine, Ukrainian Justice Minister Pavlo Petrenko has said.

"Presently, the law stipulates that we must check for all assets that may exist in the Ukrainian territory. For example, those assets owned jointly with third parties. State enforcement officers use enquiries to check for all possible assets that Gazprom may hold in Ukraine [...] The next step is the following: starting from autumn, we will be moving towards applying judicial assistance mechanisms for the enforcement of this court decision in the territories of other countries. Right now I'll refrain from naming those countries we may turn to in order to prevent any political manipulations on part of the Russian Federation," Petrenko said in an interview with the Obozrevatel online media outlet on Friday.

There are not only European countries on the list, as Ukraine has signed 27 contracts on judicial assistance stipulating that the principle of reciprocity may be applied to enforce court decisions in economic cases in third countries, he said.

"We will have international consultants involved in this process. This is a quite serious amount of money which Gazprom owes to Ukraine. It is almost $6 billion. Therefore we will apply best legal mechanisms and [hire] best professionals for this judgment to be enforced. There is no politics here. This is pure jurisprudence," Petrenko said.