ARMA prepares to sell iron ore seized in Ukraine

The National Asset recovery and management agency (ARMA) is preparing for the sale Russian iron ore arrested in Ukraine. It is stated in department’s press office.

The agency’s specialists have inspected and are preparing the arrested raw materials for sale in the Pivdennyi port. In particular, they examined the warehouses of iron ore briquettes produced by the Lebedinsky Mining, owned by Russian oligarch Alisher Usmanov. Iron ore was delivered to the port using the transit customs regime for the accumulation of a shipload in order to further transport it to China.

In addition, there was a review of the iron ore pellets produced by the Mikhailovsky Mining, transferred for sale, also located in the customs control zone of the state-owned enterprise Izmail Commercial Sea Port. The property was delivered by rail to the terminal of TIS-COAL LLC for reloading to sea transport under an agreement with Metalloinvest Trading AG. The specified sea terminal is located in the Pivdennyi seaport, at the Vizirka control point, and part of the pellets is in safekeeping of the Izmail sea port.

Assets are stored in different warehouses and sites, and are not cleared at the moment. As a result of the review, ARMA collected the necessary information used in the assessment. Now the National Agency is taking measures to transfer the specified property for the sale of the trading platform, determined in the competitive selection procedure.

In December 2022, the detectives of Ukrainian Economic Security Bureau (ESB) arrested 166,000 tons of iron ore owned by a Russian oligarch’s company. The approximate value of the seized raw materials is about UAH 1.8 billion. In February 2023, the arrested iron ore was handed over to ARMA.

As GMK Center reported earlier, April 12, 2023, USA imposed sanctions against Russian Metalloinvest. The subsidiaries of Metaloinvest Lebedynskyi and Mykhailivskyi Minings, OEMK and the Swiss Metalloinvest Trading came under the influence of Western sanctions.