Infrastructure Minister insists on regaining control over Ukrainian Railways

The minister has told UNIAN that the move was approved at a Cabinet’s emergency meeting in violation of all formal requirements. At the same time, he noted that he had voted for this decision, conditional to a forwarding of the document to the infrastructure ministry for a preliminary approval.

The minister said that once his office received the document, the objections were worked out and submitted within 24 hours. "I hope that the Government will further consider the issue and take a balanced decision," he said.

Read alsoUkrzaliznytsia CEO: Infrastructure Ministry blocks top managers' decisions"After all, in fact, the masterminds behind this transfer pursued a single goal – to conceal from the public the answers to questions about the real state of affairs in Ukrzaliznytsia," said Omelyan, adding that the move "will only aggravate the crisis in the company and not leave any chance to reform it."

He noted that at present the Cabinet decision has not yet been signed by the Prime Minister of Ukraine, but in the case of its signing, the Ministry of Infrastructure intends to defend in court its position on the illegality of the company transfer."

Read alsoInfrastructure Ministry stripped of control over Ukrainian Railways - mediaAs UNIAN reported earlier, on January 18 the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine took the decision to withdraw Ukrzaliznytsia from under control of the Ministry of Infrastructure of Ukraine and reassign it directly to the Government. At the same time, Infrastructure Minister Volodymyr Omelyan called the decision “strange”, noting that the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade, which effectively gaind control of the company, does not have the "knowledge and skills" to manage Ukrainian Railways. In turn, company CEO Wojciech Balczun welcomed this decision, saying that the Ministry of infrastructure sabotaged and blocked the decisions of the Board, while all the success in the industry has been made possible thanks to the support of Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman.