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Ukraine's Naftohaz Says Russia Ordered To Pay $5 Billion For Illegal Seizure Of Assets

By RFE/RL April 13, 2023

Ukraine's state energy company, Naftohaz, says a Hague-based tribunal has ordered Moscow to pay the company $5 billion for the illegal seizure of its assets in Crimea, which occurred after Russia illegally annexed the peninsula in 2014.

Naftohaz CEO Oleksiy Chernyshov said on April 13 his company had "won a victory on the energy front."

"In spite of Russia's attempts to obstruct justice, the arbitration tribunal ordered Russia to compensate Naftohaz for losses of $5 billion," Chernyshov said, adding that the ruling "relates to the seizure of our assets in Crimea by Russia in 2014."

"Now Russia must follow the ruling in accordance with its obligations under international law," Chernyshov added.

Naftohaz filled the lawsuit against Russia in 2016 at the Permanent Court of Arbitration, which administers the tribunal, in The Hague.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov reacted to the court ruling by saying that Russia will analyze it.

"Our specialists, who are defending our rights in the case, will analyze the court's decision and determine our next steps," Peskov said.

Russia annexed Crimea in March 2014, sending in troops and staging a referendum denounced as illegitimate by at least 100 countries.

Weeks after that, Russia incited separatist sentiments in Ukraine's eastern Luhansk and Donetsk regions and has supported pro-Russian separatists in the two regions since then.

After launching its ongoing unprovoked invasion of Ukraine in February last year, Russia declared that the two regions, as well as Ukraine's Zaporizhzhya and Kherson regions, were parts of the Russian Federation after staging so-called referendums is areas of the regions controlled by Russian troops.

Ukraine, the United States, the United Kingdom, and the European Union imposed a new series of sanctions in response to the referendums, calling them illegal.

Last month, the International Criminal Court, also based in The Hague, issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin for alleged war crimes.

With reporting by Interfax, Reuters, and AFP

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/ukraine-naftohaz- russia-5-billion-assets-seizure/32362469.html

Copyright (c) 2023. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.