The National Anti-corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) has reported an increase in the number of hostile takeovers with the use of the state register of ownership rights by way of meddling, and plans to address the situation jointly with the Justice Ministry, which keeps the register, NABU head Artem Sytnyk has said.

"There are massive hostile takeovers due to meddling into the register of ownership rights: we have started receiving requests on a massive scale that a legal owner is deleted and replaced by a Cyprus-based company… [This is] a new form of a hostile takeover," he said at a press conference on Tuesday.

Sytnyk cited an example with the seizure of a building in the center of Kyiv with the involvement men with automatic weapons. "A representative of a Cyprus-based company appeared, saying: 'Look, we're new owners because we're in the register,'" he described the incident.

Sytnyk said he would meet with Justice Minister Pavlo Petrenko to address the issue.

"The NABU has authorities to put forth a motion to eliminate causes and conditions that contribute to corruption. We'll examine that issue and submit our proposals to the Justice Ministry," he said.