UNIAN
The Supreme Economic Court of Ukraine has ruled to return to the state the Samara-West and the Grozny-Armavir-Trudovaya main oil pipelines, the press service of the Prosecutor General’s Office has reported.
"At the initiative of the General Prosecutor of Ukraine 1,433 kilometers of the Samara-West and Grozny-Armavir-Trudovaya main oil pipelines that pass through the territory of Ukraine have been returned to state ownership, [having been previously] illegally owned by PrikarpatZapadtrans, [a subsidiary] of the Russian company Transnefteprodukt," the press service said in a statement.
The oil pipelines were built in Soviet times as strategic objects. On August 24, 1991 they became the property of Ukraine. However, it continued to be illegally used by subsidiary company PrikarpatZapadtrans for the transportation across the territory of Ukraine of Russian light oil.
The Prosecutor General’s Office filed a claim for the recognition of state ownership of the said property and its reclamation from unlawful possession by a commercial entity. The prosecutor's claim was satisfied in full by the decisions of the courts of first instance and appeal.
PrikarpatZapadtrans and a number of joint-stock companies in Russia appealed against the judgment in the Supreme Economic Court of Ukraine.
But the cassation court, having considered the case on March 17, 2015, agreed with the arguments of the prosecutor and left court decisions unchanged.