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The applicants requested the seizure of registered shares of Sberbank, Prominvestbank and VTB Bank.
The Supreme Court of Ukraine has given the green light to the seizure of shares of Russian banks' Ukrainian-based subsidiaries to compensate for "nationalized" assets during the Russian annexation of Crimea.
The ruling of the court is available on the court's official website.
Read alsoUkraine launches liquidation of Kremlin-run lender VTB's local subsidiary
In July 2018, one individual and 18 legal entities applied to Kyiv's Economic Court of Appeals to recognize and authorize the execution of a May 2, 2018, decision by the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) in The Hague (the Netherlands) on the recovery of compensation from Russia for assets located in Russian-occupied Crimea, according to the Supreme Court's website.
The applicants requested the seizure of registered shares of Russian state-run banks' Ukrainian subsidiaries, namely Sberbank, Prominvestbank and VTB Bank.
Kyiv's Economic Court of Appeals satisfied the application for securing the claim and that for recognizing and permitting the enforcement of the PCA's decision.
The Supreme Court considered the complaint and decided to uphold the second decision of Kyiv's Economic Court of Appeals. At the same time, the complaint against the decision to secure the claim was satisfied partly. The final ruling will be made public on February 1.
As UNIAN reported earlier, Kyiv's Economic Court of Appeals on September 5, 2018, ruled to seize the shares of the said Russian state banks' Ukrainian subsidiaries.
The ruling was handed down based on an application to secure a claim for recognition and enforcement of the PCA's May 2 decision to claim compensation for immovable property from the Russian Federation.
According to the court ruling of September 5, VTB Bank, Prominvestbank and Sberbank were also banned from liquidating or reorganizing their legal entities, and taking any actions aimed at selling any property owned by the banks, including those under contracts of sale, exchange, donation, etc.
This ruling was appealed to the Supreme Court on September 14.
The abovementioned case was initiated by the plaintiffs against Russia on June 19, 2015, based on an agreement between the Russian and Ukrainian governments dated November 27, 1998, on the protection of Russian-Ukrainian bilateral investment and in accordance with UNCITRAL arbitration rules.
The plaintiffs insisted that Russia had violated its obligations since August 2014 through activities that hindered their investment in real estate located in Crimea, which ultimately led to the expropriation of the investment.
Among the plaintiffs are AeroBud, Crimea Development, Niva-Tur, UBK-Invest, Edelweiss-2000, Planeta, Privatofis, Privatland, Dan-Panorama, Energetik health resort, AMC Financial Capital, and AMC Financial Vector.