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.
