Owner of Okean shipyard claims attempts of Russian ex-owners to destroy enterprise, ready to be questioned by PGO
KYIV. Jan 15 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The owner of PJSC Mykolaiv Shipbuilding Plant Okean Vasyl Kapatsyna has said that the seizure of the property of the shipyard under a request of the Prosecutor General's Office (PGO) is unlawful and suspects that the initiators of the seizure are former owners of the shipyard.
"Today, I am responsible for this shipyard. But if in the coming days the Office of the Prosecutor General does not understand the situation and does not lift this negative factor, the responsibility for the destruction of this shipyard will rest with the prosecutor general. And I ask Ruslan Riaboshapka to immediately interrogate me," he said at a press conference at Interfax-Ukraine on Wednesday.
He also announced his decision to stay in Kyiv to wait for an interrogation call, because "if the situation does not change in the coming days, the shipyard will have no future."
Kapatsyna also said that has not yet seen the text of the court decision on the seizure of the shipyard's property at the request of the PGO. However, he can assume that the seizure was imposed on a dry and floating dock, hulls and lines, workshops, equipment – the entire production basis of the shipyard.
"There is a special operation to destroy the strategic enterprise of Ukraine by the hands of the law enforcement system. And I thoroughly know that this issue is controlled by Mr. Riaboshpaka, who was misled," he said.
According to the owner of the shipyard, attempts are still ongoing to invalidate the sale of Okean and return the company to its former owner, Ihor Ihnatov.
"A citizen of Ukraine Ihor Ihnatov represents the interests of Yusufov [former member of the board of directors of Russian Gazprom, Igor Yusufov] – and I am ready to testify at the central office of the SBU. Moreover, I spoke about this after the purchase of the shipyard – Ignatov works for the Federal Security Service of Russia (FSB)," Kapatsyna said.
In his opinion, the arrest of the Okean's property is part of Yusufov's special operation together with the Russian FSB aimed at preventing Ukraine from restoring shipbuilding capacities.
"I want to appeal to the President of Ukraine – dear Volodymyr, you are the Commander-in-Chief. To create a navy, build ships for our Armed Forces today is possible only at the Okean shipyard, of course, in cooperation with other shipbuilding assets, but there are qualifications, appropriate equipment and capabilities only at this shipyard. And today, in Russia they did everything to destroy this shipyard with the hands of the Ukrainian authorities and law enforcement agencies.
According to Kapatsyna, the shipyard has already signed a contract for the supply of a plasma metal cutting machine, and in 2020 it was planned to expand the shipyard staff from 700 to 1,000 people, obtain European ISO certification (International Organization for Standardization) and build a complete ship. The investor also plans to enter the European shipbuilding and bridge building market.
Kapatsyna also said that in 2019, the Okean shipyard successfully completed several contracts for the creation of metal elements for bridge structures, including the Shuliavsky Bridge in Kyiv.