The Ukrainian Sea Ports Authority is preparing a claim against the government of the Russian Federation seeking for compensation of losses caused by the temporarily occupation of Crimea, according to a posting on the website of the authority.
“The cost of state-owned property, which was assigned to the branches of the Ukrainian Sea Ports Authority and illegally appropriated by the self-proclaimed authorities of Crimea, is more than Hr 1.24 billion,” the authority said.
Earlier, the authority provided comprehensive information about its own assets on the peninsula to the Justice Ministry of Ukraine, which filed a general lawsuit with the European Court of Human Rights.
“This time we use the provisions of the Agreement on Encouragement and Reciprocal Protection of Investments. The first step is to send claims for damages directly to the government of the Russian Federation. If we do not receive a response within six months, this lawsuit will be referred to international arbitration,” Head of the authority Raivis Veckagans said.
The authority plans to send before the end of 2019 the respective written notice to the government of the Russian Federation with a request to settle a dispute on compensation for investment losses in connection with the expropriation of assets of the Ukrainian Sea Ports Authority in temporarily occupied Crimea in accordance with the Agreement between the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine and the Government of the Russian Federation on Promotion and Reciprocal Protection of Investments, which has been in force since 1998.
The interests of the Ukrainian Sea Ports Authority in the dispute with Russia will be represented by Covington & Burling LLP, the law firm which has experience in defending business entities in international public law arbitration institutions.
