Official says Kiev can file $50 bln suits vs Russia over Crimea

KIEV, Sep 23 (PRIME) -- Ukraine will demand in international courts that Russia compensate for its losses caused by the events in Crimea and rebel-held eastern regions, and the sum of claims can stand at more than U.S. $50 billion, Foreign Minister Pavel Klimkin told newspaper LB.ua in an interview published late Tuesday.

“I think that as the result, the sum of some claims can reach the level of the Yukos case,” Klimkin said referring to a lawsuit of former shareholders of defunct oil company Yukos against Russia in The Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague which adjudged the shareholders $50 billion compensation.

Klimkin said, “We have counted everything. Even the price of the mineral resources including the sand which we will be unable to use.”

He said that court decisions can be made in four to six years.

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