Ukrenergo will attract an international adviser to file a lawsuit against the Russian Federation in connection with the illegal seizure of the company's assets as a result of the annexation of Crimea, head of the state enterprise Vsevolod Kovalchuk has said during the presentation of the draft investment program for 2018.

"We have the opportunity [after the approval by the Cabinet of Ministers of the fiscal plan for 2017] to use the funds that we provided for this year - about UAH 1 million. This budget is enough to attract an international adviser who will be able to start the first stage," he said.

According to him, the company plans in 2018 to foresee in its budget more than UAH 20 million to secure the claim, while there will be less funds for this purpose in the 2019 budget.

"This [UAH 20 million] is several times less than the budgets of other companies in the face of Privat Group and Naftogaz Ukrainy, which have been moving in this direction for the past two years," Kovalchuk noted.

The head of Ukrenergo said the company has already formed necessary qualification requirements for attracting an adviser and held preliminary negotiations. Price offers were reduced by three times compared to preliminary applications.