The Ministry of Justice wants to confiscate Deripaska's bauxite worth ₴2 billion from Mykolaiv Alumina Plant

Mykolaiv Alumina Plant quay, archive photo

Ukraine's Ministry of Justice has filed a lawsuit with the High Anti-Corruption Court seeking to confiscate bauxite and alumina from the Mykolaiv Alumina Plant owned by Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska.

The Ministry of Justice announced this on its website on Thursday, 6 March.

«In the lawsuit filed, the Ministry of Justice seeks to recover more than 440,000 tonnes of bauxite and 110,000 tonnes of alumina worth more than UAH 2 billion. The Ministry of Justice was notified of the discovery of these assets by the Security Service of Ukraine», the Ministry said in a statement.

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At the same time, the publication notes that MKPAT «RUSAL», a company controlled by Oleg Deripaska, supplied aluminium products to Russian defence companies. These companies directly produce military equipment, weapons and ammunition for the Russian armed forces. In addition, the HACC found that Oleg Deripaska owns the industrial conglomerate «Russian Machines», which includes «Military Industrial Company» - the main supplier of weapons and equipment to the Russian military. In particular, it is stated that the companies of the conglomerate produce amphibious armoured personnel carriers BTR-80, BTR-82A, AMN 233114 «Tiger-M» and other combat vehicles ordered by the Russian Ministry of Defence.

Earlier, the Security Service of Ukraine reported that almost 500,000 tonnes of bauxite and alumina belonging to Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska were illegally exported from the Mykolaiv Alumina Plant in 2023.

According to the decision of the Shevchenkivskyi District Court of Kyiv of 21 January 2025, which was made available at «NikVesti », at the request of the Prosecutor General's Office, the property of the Swiss company «RS International GmbH» stored at the Mykolaiv Alumina Plant for a total value of UAH 2.48 billion, which, before the start of the full-scale military aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine, was transferred for processing to LLC «MGZ» under a «tolling scheme». Namely, 441.3 thousand tonnes of bauxite, 60.9 thousand tonnes of metallurgical alumina and 49.7 thousand tonnes of raw alumina. It is worth noting that «RS International GmbH» is a subsidiary of «RUSAL» owned by Oleg Deripaska.

Screenshot from the court decision to seize bauxite and alumina at Mykolaiv Alumina Plant

Earlier, all of the oligarch's plants in Ukraine were nationalised. As reported earlier, Oleg Deripaska, the former owner of «Mykolaiv Alumina Plant» , called for an immediate ceasefire in Ukraine.

The oligarch has been under US sanctions since 2018 because of his ties to Putin. In 2022, the UK also imposed sanctions against him over Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

See also the article «NikVesti»: Trapped in stagnation: what are the chances of Mykolaiv Alumina Plant after nationalisation?

«Nationalisation of» Mykolaiv Alumina Plant

On 16 February 2023, the High Anti-Corruption Court ruled on the nationalisation of the NGZ. However, the lawyers defending the interests of Mykolaiv Alumina Plant filed six appeals against the decision of the first instance court. Finally, on 21 June last year, the Appeals Chamber of the High Anti-Corruption Court dismissed the appeals against the decision of the first instance court to confiscate the corporate rights of Mykolaiv Alumina Plant. Thus, the decision to confiscate one hundred per cent of the plant's capital and related companies became final.

A year after the court ruling, in March 2024, Ukraine completed the nationalisation of the Mykolaiv Alumina Plant (MGZ), which was confiscated from Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska.

According to the Unified State Register of Legal Entities, the State Property Fund of Ukraine became the sole owner of the enterprise on 20 March 2024.

It should be noted that MHP actually stopped its operations at the beginning of the full-scale invasion, and the company's corporate rights were under arrest since June 2022. In May 2023, the head of Mykolaiv Regional Administration Vitaliy Kim said that the plant had only 300 employees out of the 6,000 that were there before the war. They are mainly engaged in security and maintenance of sludge fields.

As you know, LLC «Mykolaiv Alumina Plant» is one of the largest air polluters in the region. In 2021, the company emitted 2672.7 tonnes of pollutants into the atmosphere, which is 140.9 tonnes more than in 2020. The main pollutants emitted by the enterprise in 2021 were nitrogen compounds - 1345.1 tonnes, substances in the form of suspended solids - 756.6 tonnes, carbon monoxide - 316.7 tonnes, metals and their compounds - 234.8 tonnes.

Vitaliy Kim, the head of the Mykolaiv-based UPA, wants the Mykolaiv Alumina Plant to produce raw materials for aluminium production in Europe after it becomes state-owned.

Currently, 400 of the company's 5,000 employees work at the plant. Their main task is to maintain the two sludge pits located on the territory of the plant.