Ukraine submits counterclaim against ruling to pay UESU's debts to Russia's Defense Ministry, says Justice Minister
The Justice Ministry of Ukraine has filed a counterclaim against a ruling of the economic court of appeals on the payment of the debts of United Energy Systems of Ukraine (UESU) by Ukraine to the Defense Ministry of Russia.
"The counterclaim has been submitted yesterday or the day before yesterday, I don't remember exactly," First Deputy Justice Minister of Ukraine Inna Yemelianova told journalists in Kyiv on Wednesday.
As reported, the Russian Defense Ministry filed at Kyiv Economic Court a lawsuit against the Ukrainian government for the non-payment of UAH 3.239 billion under a criminal case on the activities of the UESU Corporation. The plaintiff also asked the court to summon the State Treasury Service of Ukraine as a third party on the side of the defendant in the case. The UESU is also a third party on the side of the defendant in the case.
The Russian ministry claims that, in the 1990s, the UESU, which was then headed by former Ukrainian Premier Yulia Tymoshenko, failed to meet its commitments on supplies for the Russian military under a 1997 agreement. The then Ukrainian Prime Minister Pavlo Lazarenko allegedly provided state guarantees that the commitments would be fulfilled.
UESU representative Oleksandr Kovalchuk said in court that Lazarenko had made promises that the UESU would meet its commitments in letters, and that they could not be legally qualified as state guarantees. Kovalchuk also said that alleged pressure from the Ukrainian government had prevented the UESU from fulfilling its commitments.
The Ukrainian government representatives also told the court there had been no state guarantees and argued that the statute of limitations made the suit invalid.
On September 19, 2012 Kyiv Economic Court partially satisfied a suit from the Russian Defense Ministry concerning a debt accumulated by Unified Energy Systems of Ukraine (UESU), ordering Ukraine to pay UAH 3.11 billion ($400 million) to Russia's defense agency.
On October 11, 2011, Pechersky District Court in Kyiv sentenced Tymoshenko to seven years in prison for overstepping her authority when signing 2009 gas contracts with Russia. She has served her sentence in Kachanivska Penal Colony in Kharkiv since late December 2011.
On December 3, Kyiv's Economic Court of Appeals upheld the ruling of Kyiv's Economic Court on the payment by the Cabinet of Ministers of the UESU debt to the Russian Defense Ministry.
