Court Orders Ukraine To Pay For Failed Deal Of Tymoshenko's Firm

A Tymoshenko supporter holds up a portrait of the jailed former prime minister at a protest outside a courthouse in Kharkiv last week.

A Kyiv court has ordered the Ukrainian government to pay Russia $382 million over a failed deal involving a firm once run by Yulia Tymoshenko.

Reports say the move could prompt fresh legal action against the jailed former prime minister.

The court ruled on September 19 that the government must pay Russia's Defense Ministry 3.1 billion hryvnyas over a failed 1997 deal involving Unified Energy Systems of Ukraine (UES).

The company, now defunct, was run by Tymoshenko in 1997.

Russia had sought 3.2 billion hryvnyas ($394 million) from Kyiv over the deal because the Ukrainian government had acted as a guarantor to UES.

Tymoshenko is serving a seven-year prison sentence on abuse-of-office charges that Western governments consider politically motivated.

She is also currently on trial on embezzlement and tax-evasion charges.

Based on reporting by Reuters and Interfax