Zelenskyy Suggests Spending Gazprom Arbitration Victory Funds On Improving Roads and Medicine

05 February 2020 16:19

What’s the best way to spend $2.9 billion dollars? That’s the question Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy is asking after Ukraine’s victory over Russia in a Stockholm arbitration court.

What’s the best way to spend $2.9 billion dollars? That’s the question Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy is asking after Ukraine’s victory over Russia in a Stockholm arbitration court. The case, between Ukrainian energy company Naftogaz and Russian energy company Gazprom, resulted in a $2.9 billion award for Naftogaz, though Gazprom refused payment until the two sides came to an agreement on a new gas transit contract.

Zelenskyy has a few ideas on where to funnel the funds. During a meeting with representatives from the Cabinet of Ministers, Zelenskyy suggested re-investing the funds into roads, medicine, and infrastructure.

“We are planning to send additional funds for road construction – this is our infrastructure priority; on other infrastructure projects, on the medical sphere and energy efficiency. One of our plans is to build over 200 medical admission units in Ukraine,” said the president, according to the presidential administration.

He further directed the government to prepare additional projects for the funds over the next two weeks.

Previously, Naftogaz Executive Director Yuriy Vitrenko indicated that Naftogaz leadership would receive bonuses from the victory of up to 1% of the arbitration award ($29,000,000). But during a meeting with Prime Minister Oleksiy Honcharuk on January 17, Zelenskyy ordered the latter to sort out the situation.