MOSCOW, April 20. /TASS/. Ukraine called on the leadership of British oil and gas company Shell to share more than $1 bln from the sale of its assets in Russia if the deal goes through, Politico wrote citing a letter from a Ukrainian official.

"If completed, this sale would represent the transfer of more than $1 billion in Russian cash into Shell’s accounts. … We call on Shell to put any Russian sale or dividend proceeds to work for the victims of the war — the same war that those assets have fuelled and funded," economic adviser to the Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky Oleg Ustenko said in a letter to the company, according to Politico.

"We appreciate that as of this moment, Shell may not have a choice on whether to accept this offer," Ustenko wrote.

It was reported earlier that following the publishing of the government decree, Russian company Novatek was able to pay 94.8 bln rubles (around $1.2 bln) for Shell's 27.5% minus 1 share in Sakhalin Energy. The company will gain access to LNG exports from the Sakhalin-2 plant, as well as a long-term Shell deal to ship 1 mln metric tons of LNG per year until 2028.

Representatives of Shell declined to comment, but noted that the company "is not actively engaged in any business with ongoing operations inside Russia, is not party to any current negotiations for the sale of a stake in Sakhalin-2 and has no clarity over what would happen to the proceeds from such a sale," Politico said.