The State Savings Bank, the Pension Fund and the Tax Service risk losing UAH 800 million, which Dmytro Firtash's group owes them. The most unruly part of this story is that the debtor factory has been under the control of the Kremlin for several years.
The oligarch under sanctions, Dmytro Firtash, is preparing to "write off" billions of hryvnias in debt. His companies are already working on creating the necessary base for this, the process started with the bankruptcy of "Ukrainian Chemical Products", which is part of Firtash's Group DF and was previously known as "Crimean Titan".
The bankruptcy process began on February 7, 2024 under the guise of a lawsuit by the German Commerzbank. The bank complained that it could not receive its 720 million hryvnias, the corresponding credit agreements were concluded back in 2008. The debtor fulfilled his obligations until September 2015, but several years of negotiations did not bring results. Commerzbank managed to initiate bankruptcy after being supported by the Supreme Court of Ukraine in November 2023.
However, in its attempt to become an influential member of the creditors' committee, the German bank faced considerable competition. At the beginning of March, the court received statements from several creditors in the amount of almost UAH 8.4 billion, all of which belong to the Firtash group. The largest demand was presented by the "Styrol" concern in the amount of UAH 4.77 billion. Note that these enterprises are still owned by the Firtash group, although their facilities were destroyed.
Separately, it should be noted LLC "Fincapital Group", which is also preparing to join the committee of creditors with a demand for the amount of UAH 2 billion. This lender is also linked to the Firtash Group through its legal ties to Group DF enterprises.
During the last 10 years, Dmytro Firtash successfully evaded American justice in Austria. In March 2014, he was detained in this country at the request of the United States on corruption charges, but was released on bail of 125 million euros. Austria refuses to extradite Firtash at the request of the United States. In June 2021, sanctions were applied to him in Ukraine. Last year, the oligarch was suspected by the SBU of stealing gas from the gas transportation system in the amount of more than 18 billion hryvnias.
In such a situation, Firtash probably has no intention of returning the debts. And in the case of "Ukrainian Chemical Products", probably none of the creditors will receive money. Lenders from Firtash's group probably won't be dismayed by such an ending. However, it will definitely not bring happiness to banks that are waiting for debt repayment. Both Commerzbank, which will be forced to write off a debt of 720 million hryvnias, and the state-owned Ukrainian Savings Bank. Recently, "Oschad" demanded 624 million hryvnias from "Ukrainian Chemical Products". Here we can also add the Pension Fund of Ukraine and the Tax Service, to which Firtash's company owes more than 210 million hryvnias. That is, the potential losses of the state from this bankruptcy may amount to more than 800 million hryvnias. 
In recent years, Firtash has used a cunning scheme to avoid sanctions and maintain control over assets. In 2014, he registered the Titan Investments company in Moscow, which leased an Armenian factory, the former Crimean Titan. Later, this plant became a branch of Titan Investments. However, this scheme turned out to be too complicated. In 2015, "Ukrainian Chemical Products" took a loan from a Russian bank in the amount of 46 million dollars, which it did not return. This led to the beginning of the bankruptcy of Titan Investments in Russia. In 2020, the case was closed with a settlement agreement, and at the beginning of 2021, Firtash's group announced that Ukrainian Chemical Products had sold all property assets of the former Crimean Titan plant to Russian Titan. The buyer became part of the Russian JSC "Roshim", which was nationalized by the Kremlin in 2021. Firtash seems to have transferred his assets to the Kremlin and has not returned the debts to Ukrainian and German banks, and now he is preparing to write them off.
