Prime Minister of Ukraine Yulia Tymoshenko initiates an international investigation into the fact of the illegal privatization of the Black Sea Shelf.

According to an UNIAN correspondent, Yulia Tymoshenko claimed this at the press conference in the Cabinet of Ministers today.

“The government, and me personally, initiated an international investigation, because in Ukraine this corrupted deal is covered by all force structures. An international investigation, similar to that on RosUkrEnergo, will call all things by their right names”, Yulia Tymoshenko said.

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The Prime Minister also stressed that all officials who allowed the illegal privatization of the shelves, “sooner or later will be answerable in line with the law”.

At the same time, the Prime Minister did not specify to which international structures it will turn with request to carry out the investigation. “I turned to international organization that investigate into crimes in the energy sphere, for they to carry out an investigation of how they seized Ukrainian shelves and wanted to destroy the energy independence of the country”, Yulia Tymoshenko claimed.

As UNIAN reported earlier, in 2006 Vanco International Ltd. won the first open contest and signed an agreement with the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine in 2007 on the exploration of the Black Sea Shelf. Yulia Tymoshenko’s government pulled Vanco’s licence to explore a vast 12,900km field off the Crimean peninsula, citing concern that Gazprom could, through partners, gain a hidden interest in the project that was originally intended to diversify energy supplies by boosting domestic production. Ms Tymoshenko also suggested past governments might have compromised Kyiv’s “national interests” by yielding such a large field and unjustifiable proceeds to a single group.