The Ministry of Justice of Ukraine plans to involve a legal advisor to protect the interests of the state in arbitration in accordance with international rules, which was initiated by Chinese investors in PJSC Motor Sich. The claimed amount of damages estimated by the applicants is approximately $3.5 billion. The draft resolution on selecting the advisor was submitted to a meeting of the Cabinet of Ministers on Wednesday.

According to the explanatory note to the draft posted on the government website, the plaintiffs were Chinese citizens Wang Jing, Li Fengju, Ren Jinglin, Xu Changshung, Wang Xinlei and Liu Yanning, who indicate that they are shareholders of Motor Sich and have the right to protect their investments in accordance with the relevant intergovernmental agreement signed by Ukraine and China in 1992.

According to the document, the investors dispute the actions of the Security Service of Ukraine, which opened a criminal case on the purchase of shares and achieved the seizure of these shares, as well as repeated refusals of the Antimonopoly Committee to agree on the concentration together with Ukraine's DCH group of Oleksandr Yaroslavsky and claim that Ukroboronprom pressured on them in an attempt to receive 25% of shares in Motor Sich.

In this regard, in the middle of December, the Ministry of Justice created the multiagency working group to protect the interests of the state in this case.

As reported, the Chinese investors of PJSC Motor Sich notified Ukraine of filing a request for international arbitration on December 5, 2020. Their interests will be represented by international law firms WilmerHale, DLA Piper and Bird & Bird. Arzinger will act as an advisor on Ukrainian law in international arbitration.

According to a source in the government, currently about 75% of Motor Sich's shares are already owned by a group of Chinese owners, and some part of the disputed block of shares acts as collateral for financing provided, among other things, by China Development Bank.