The court granted the lawsuit of the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine on the nationalization of four enterprises, which, according to the SBU, belonged to Russian oligarchs Sergei Chemezov and Mikhail Shelkov. According to the press service of the SBU, the total value of the property transferred to the Ukrainian state is at least 2 billion hryvnia ($54.4 million).
According to the court decision, the Demurinsky Mining and Processing Plant, the pipe manufacturer LLC VSMPO Titan, the company engaged in the sale of metals Tai-Minerals LLC and the agricultural holding Invest Agro were nationalized. The SBU alleges that Chemezov and Shelkov operated these enterprises through the Russian PJSC VSMPO-AVISMA Corporation, which specializes in the production of titanium. According to the Ukrainian intelligence service, this enterprise is part of the military-industrial complex of Russia.
According to the SBU, after the beginning of the invasion of Russian troops into Ukraine, Chemezov and Shelkov tried to hide their connection with Ukrainian assets by transferring control over them to commercial structures in the Dnepropetrovsk and Sumy regions. The transactions, however, were detected and blocked in time.
According to Transparency International Ukraine, Shelkov in the past headed the investment arm of the state corporation Rostec, which controlled military contractors in Russia. Chemezov is the CEO of the company.