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Russia-Ukraine gas dispute

Ukraine’s Naftogaz prepares new lawsuit against Gazprom

On October 18, Vitrenko said Naftogaz planned to claim a $11 bln compensation from Gazprom for possible termination of gas transit

© Roman Kanashchuk/TASS

KIEV, October 29. /TASS/. The executive director of Ukraine’s national oil and gas company Naftogaz, Yuri Vitrenko, said he was preparing a new lawsuit against Russia’s Gazprom.

"I did not waste time, because I was working on particulars of a lawsuit against Gazprom in a new arbitration process," he said in a Facebook post on Monday.

The statement was made against the background of trilateral gas talks in Brussels, during which the European Commission, Russia and Ukraine discuss the future of Russian gas transit via Ukraine. The current 10-year gas transit contract expires in the end of this year.

On October 18, Vitrenko said Naftogaz planned to claim a $11 bln compensation from Gazprom for possible termination of gas transit and will send the relevant claim to the Russian company on November 1.

Gazprom and Naftogaz plunged into litigation over gas supplies and transit contracts with the Arbitration Institute of the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce back in 2014. In December 2017 and February 2018, the Stockholm Arbitration Court ruled that the Russian company should pay $2.56 bln to the Ukrainian company. Gazprom appealed against these decisions. The Svea County Court of Appeal in Sweden set up a Gazprom appeal hearing in October 2019.

However, in summer 2018, Naftogaz launched attempts to seize the Russian company’s assets in Switzerland, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Luxembourg. Gazprom contested those moves in court as well.

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Russia-Ukraine Gas Dispute

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