Head of the Ukraine's Prosecutor General's Office (PGO) special investigations department Serhiy Horbatiuk has said offshore companies may file suit to reclaim assets confiscated from accounts controlled by disgraced ex-President Viktor Yanukovych and his cronies.

"There are firms, of course, which will challenge the confiscation. Some will be denied and some may appeal to European courts with hope that the European courts will be sympathetic to their arguments," Horbatiuk told the 112.Ukraine TV channel.

Horbatiuk also said the confiscation court ruling made public by reporters from Al Jazeera must be checked.

"We have information about control over the assets from bureaucrats. The press has reported the assets were confiscated and are not in the State Budget. But, firstly, we need to confirm the authenticity of the court ruling. That has not been done yet," he said. Horbatiuk added that he does not know how the court ruling, which is considered classified information, found its way to Al Jazeera journalists.

Al Jazeera on January 10, 2017 published a 95-page text of the verdict of the Kramatorsk City Court dated March 28, 2017, which was later classified as containing a state secret, as the third installment of this week's series of publications on special confiscation in Ukraine.

The court verdict is posted on the TV channel's website both in Ukrainian and in English.

Al Jazeera argues that the verdict reveals the scheme through which public funds were embezzled under fugitive ex-president Yanukovych, and asks why the court verdict was classified.

Ukraine's Deputy Prosecutor General Yevhen Yenin said the Prosecutor General's Office can neither confirm nor deny the authenticity of the text of the verdict published by Al Jazeera. According to him, the text of the ruling of the Kramatorsk District Court on the special confiscation of $1.5 billion of Viktor Yanukovych's entourage is classified because of ongoing investigative actions and to protect all the participants in the process.