The Ukrainian League of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (ULIE) is forced to appeal to law enforcement agencies and the public due to a new incident of attempted blocking of its activities at its headquarters at 34 Khreshchatyk Street, Kyiv.
The personal belongings of the business union’s employees, as well as important working documents, keys for electronic signatures, forms and seals of the organization remain in the premises. This situation greatly complicates our activities and threatens to disrupt the international projects to restore Ukraine that we are involved in.
We remind you that a few months ago, the balance holder of the premises, the Office of Administrative Buildings of the Economic and Financial Department of the CMU Secretariat, decided in an ultimatum not to agree to the extension of the USPP office, which it has occupied for 32 years, arguing that government officials need the building. At the same time, the Cabinet of Ministers itself has announced a reduction in ministries and, accordingly, in their staffs, and the neighboring floors of the building on Khreshchatyk, with a total area of about 3,000 square meters, have not been used for years.
The ULIE seeks to resolve everything exclusively in the legal field. Therefore, court proceedings on this issue are ongoing, and the courts have not yet made a decision on this issue.
Instead, the balance holder, without waiting for a court decision, installed a metal structure worth about 400 thousand hryvnias – and this is in wartime, in conditions of unprecedented budget deficit – to simply prevent employees of the NGO from returning to their workplaces.
On the basis of the ULIE, the Anti-Crisis Headquarters for Economic Sustainability under Martial Law operates, where the problems of the wartime economy are discussed, and the meetings are attended by representatives of the parliament, government officials, business organizations, the National Academy of Sciences and others. The headquarters’ recommendations are taken into account in the decisions of the National Security and Defense Council and the Government, as well as in draft laws of the Verkhovna Rada. For example, a recent meeting of the Anti-Crisis Center was devoted to the issues of reservation and energy. Our efforts have resulted in progress in the electronic booking of specialists, and before that, in the ability to book all 100% of employees of defense companies, etc. Proposals on energy are expected to be taken into account in the NSDC decisions. The day before, Anatoliy Kinakh, President of the ULIE, held a working meeting with Oleksandr Lytvynenko, Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council, where the parties agreed on joint actions in this area.
The Ukrainian League of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs is actively involved in the implementation of the President’s initiative “Made in Ukraine” and the joint Statement of the Government and business associations of Ukraine on deepening cooperation between the state and business.
Moreover, the ULIE regularly hosts meetings and working communications with international partners: a joint project with the ILO to stimulate women’s economic involvement through the development of a network of corporate children’s spaces, online conferences with related business organizations from the EU, the US, and other partner countries of Ukraine in the fight against the Russian aggressor, and meetings with ambassadors.
In Warsaw, the ULIE registered the Premier-U International Foundation, whose main goal is to restore Ukraine from the consequences of Russian aggression and attract investments from partner countries for these purposes. The supervisory board of the Foundation includes former prime ministers of Ukraine and Poland, and in the future – most EU countries.
Therefore, such unilateral actions by the balance holder (the CMU Office) threaten to disrupt important projects to restore Ukraine and call into question the state intentions of individual government officials involved in this case.
As long as the court proceedings are ongoing, it is unacceptable to impede the statutory activities of the USPP, an organization with a 32-year history, known and respected in business circles in Ukraine and the EU. This harms the European integration process, the image of the state, worsens business expectations and reduces the effectiveness of the government-entrepreneurs’ dialogue.
The unimpeded operation of the ULIE is critically important for supporting Ukrainian business and industry, especially under martial law.
We appeal to Ukrainian business associations, employers’ associations, public organizations and initiatives to support us as you have always done. We also appeal to the media to cover this incident. Your attention and support is important for ensuring transparency and justice in our country.
The war unleashed by the Russian Federation against Ukraine continues. The enemy is focusing its efforts on depleting Ukraine’s resources.
Now is the time for unity, joint work to increase the resilience and self-sufficiency of the national economy, development of Ukrainian production, and thus further strengthening of our defense capabilities.
For more details, please visit the official website of the ULIE (uspp.ua).
The background of the issue is here.
The All-Ukrainian Association of Bakers, the Union “Mukomols of Ukraine” and the Association of bakery enterprises “Ukrkhlebprom” appealed to law enforcement authorities and the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) with a request to stop the prosecution of the First Deputy Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food Taras Vysotsky and to drop charges against him for using his official position during the state procurement of products in March-April-2022.
“We convincingly ask the leadership of law enforcement agencies, primarily the NABU, to objectively consider all the circumstances and facts, make the right conclusions and stop the prosecution of one of the most decent and professional officials”, – stated in the available “Interfax-Ukraine” appeal of three business associations, uniting the majority of producers of bakery products, flour, cereals and pasta.
The business associations expressed surprise at Vysotskyy’s notification of suspicion of committing a criminal offense under part 2 of Article 364 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (use of official position to obtain an unlawful benefit for a legal entity contrary to the interests of the service) and assured law enforcement agencies that in this case there was an unfortunate mistake.
“We, as producers of essential products, remember well those extra difficult times of the beginning of the full-scale war with the Russian invaders, which stood on the outskirts of the capital, when it was a question of survival and ensuring food security of the state. A huge role in this process was played by the leadership of the relevant ministry, and first of all by T.M. Vysotsky, because it was thanks to his honest and highly professional actions to manage and coordinate the activities of the industry that it was possible to avoid interruptions and abuses in the supply of food to the population and the AFU”, – said public organizations.
They called the accusations against Vysotskyy groundless and asked law enforcement agencies to carefully familiarize themselves with the position of the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food, which they fully share.
As reported, on 24 August, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAP) accused the first deputy minister of agrarian policy of Ukraine, Vysotskyy, of abusing 62.5m hryvnyas in the purchase of food products to meet the needs of the state during martial law.
The Ministry of Agrarian Policy published a statement specifying the accusation received by Vysotskyy. In March-April 2022, he allegedly coordinated invoices for regional military administrations (RMAs) for the purchase of imported durum wheat pasta from Olimp LLC and WinsideLight LLC at inflated prices, which caused damage to the state in the amount of UAH 63 million. The investigation indicates that the cost of pasta products as of March-May 2022 ranged from 33.65-36.89 UAH/kg.
“The investigation does not take into account that the State Statistics Service of Ukraine for the period of March-May 2022 provides prices for pasta from durum wheat varieties for 500 g, and the purchase of 1 kg was carried out, so the price exceeded 72 UAH/kg, which excludes damage”, – emphasized in the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and added that the said arithmetical error should be taken into account and corrected by the investigation.
In addition, the investigation was advised to take into account the existence of a public contract for the supply of food products and its terms and conditions, which were not determined by Vysotsky. The Ministry of Agrarian Policy was not a party to the contract, all contracts were agreed upon by the regional military administrations. Vysotsky, in turn, drew the attention of the OVA representatives to the need to conclude deals at the lowest possible prices.
Northern Commercial Court of Appeal of Kyiv decided to postpone the meeting to consider the appeal of Tedis Ukraine LLC, the largest distributor of cigarettes, regarding the seizure of the company’s accounts on the application for securing the claim of the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine (AMC) under enforced collection of a fine.
“The personal presence of the MP from the Servant of People party Oleksandr Dubynsky and the rally of representatives of National Corps under the courthouse during the court session are eloquent. We regard this as a demonstration of unprecedented political and media pressure on judges and on our company, the only goal of which is to redistribute all tobacco market in the interests of certain groups of influence,” said the press service of “Tedis-Ukraine” to Interfax-Ukraine.
The UK’s Court of Appeal, which is considering the Russian-Ukrainian dispute over $3 billion in eurobonds issued by Kyiv, has decided to study the Ukrainian side’s argument that eurobonds were issued under pressure from the creditor, in this case Russia, the Russian Finance Ministry said in a statement, indicating that Law Debentures Trust will appeal to the Supreme Court regarding this argument on behalf of the Finance Ministry.
“Today, the UK’s Court of Appeal rendered a verdict on Ukraine’s appeal of the London High Court ruling obligating Ukraine to redeem its debt and pay interest on a bond issue acquired by Russia with funds from the National Wealth Fund. The Court of Appeal confirmed the lawfulness of the refusal to grant Ukraine consideration of three of the four arguments stated in order to avoid meeting its obligations with respect to these eurobonds,” the statement said.
“Earlier, the London High Court did not grant consideration of all of the argument stated by Ukraine, determining that they did not minimal criteria for their consideration in full-fledged court proceedings envisaging the calling of witnesses, consideration and analysis of documents, as well as other evidence presented by the parties to the dispute,” the statement said.
The Court of Appeal rendered a judgment on the necessity of conducting legal proceedings in order to determine the presence or absence of evidence supporting the remaining, fourth Ukrainian argument, which alleges that the borrower issued eurobonds under pressure from the creditor, that is Russia, the statement said. At the same time, the Court of Appeal did not confirm the rightness of the defense’s fourth argument, and only declared that that argument, as opposed to the other three arguments made by Ukraine, cannot be dismissed without conducting comprehensive legal proceedings.
Ukraine’s fourth argument, much like the other three arguments, must also be dismissed without legal proceedings, the Russian Finance Ministry said. For this reason, the Ministry has requested that Law Debenture Trust Corporation plc, as the eurobond trustee, to file an appeal with the UK’s Supreme Court regarding the decision on Ukraine’s fourth argument.
