On November 21, 2025, the Supreme Court of Sweden refused to open an appeal on the complaint of the Cypriot companies Littop Enterprises Limited, Bordo Management Limited and Bridgemont Ventures Limited (LBB) to overturn the decision of the Svea Court of Appeal (Stockholm), which refused to overturn the arbitration award in the Ukrnafta case of February 4, 2021.
This is announced in a statement by the Ministry of Justice, Ukrainian News Agency reports.
Thus, the court decisions in this case have become final.
The LBB companies, which as of the date of the appeal owned 40.1009% of the shares of PJSC Ukrnafta, in 2015 initiated arbitration proceedings against the state of Ukraine, demanding compensation in the amount of more than USD 6 billion with interest.
As a result of the consideration of the case, the arbitral tribunal agreed with the position of the State of Ukraine regarding the lack of jurisdiction to consider this case. In particular, the arbitral tribunal concluded that the LBB companies had not made an actual contribution to the authorized capital of PJSC Ukrnafta, and therefore had not made an investment within the meaning of the Energy Charter Treaty and had no right to apply to international arbitration.
This conclusion was confirmed by the Svea Court of Appeal (Stockholm).
Disagreeing with this decision, the LBB companies appealed to the Supreme Court of Sweden.
However, the Supreme Court of Sweden found no grounds for reviewing the case and refused to open appeal proceedings.
As a result of the court and arbitration proceedings, LBB is obliged to reimburse the State of Ukraine for the costs of arbitration and court proceedings totaling more than USD 22 million, as well as interest in accordance with Article 6 of the Swedish Interest Act, in particular:
- costs of arbitration proceedings – USD 18,927,177.62, including accrued interest in accordance with Article 6 of the Swedish Interest Act from February 4, 2021 unil the payment of the principal debt;
- legal costs in the case regarding jurisdictional proceedings – USD 2,669,131, including accrued interest in accordance with Article 6 of the Swedish Interest Act from January 31, 2025 until the payment of the principal debt;
- legal costs in the case regarding the proceedings on legal costs – USD 549,674 and SEK 2,800.00, including accrued interest in accordance with Article 6 of the Swedish Interest Act from January 31, 2025 until the payment of the principal debt.
The State of Ukraine in this case was represented by Latham & Watkins (London) LLP (foreign counsel), Westerberg & Partners (Swedish counsel) and the law firm Saenko Kharenko (Ukrainian counsel).
As Ukrainian News Agency earlier reported, in June 2015, three Cypriot companies Littop Enterprises, Bordo Management and Bridgemont Ventures, associated with businessman Ihor Kolomoiskyi (together they owned 40.1% of Ukrnafta's shares), filed an investor-state arbitration claim against Ukraine for over USD 6 billion.
In 2021, the Stockholm Arbitration Tribunal rejected the claims of the plaintiffs of minority shareholders of PJSC Ukrnafta, who were suing Ukraine and wanted to recover more than USD 6 billion from it.
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