UKRAINE, May 20 — The Ministry of Economy of Ukraine supports the idea of work resumption of Smart Holding group gas production in Kharkiv and Poltava regions, said Yaroslava Maksymenko, the head of the department of property policy and sanctions, to Interfax-Ukraine news agency.

In 2022, the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine imposed sanctions on Vadym Novynskyi, Smart Holding’s shareholder and pro-Russian oligarch, who was accused by SBU of “providing assistance to the aggressor’s state.” 

In 2023, Ukrainian court arrested 72 companies connected to Novynskyi’s assets that are controlled by Smart Holding or via offshore companies. The company stopped working in January 2025 because of the termination of three special permits for extraction and development of gas. 

On May 15, during a roundtable discussion on “Ukrainian subsoil under sanctions and arrests: challenges, conclusions, future,” Ivan Herasymovych, CEO of Smart Holding, asked “to hear the business” that wants to work in Ukraine.

“If we talk about Ukrainian businesses that work for the Ukrainian economy and prevent the influence of sanctioned ultimate beneficial owners on Ukrainian companies, the Ministry of Economy shares the positions that Ukrainian businesses should work for Ukraine,” said Maksymenko, responding to a request.

Herasymovych asked to make an appropriate “corrective decision.”

“Sanctions aimed to deprive Russia of resources for war in Ukraine, right? If sanctions work to deprive its state of resources, we need to find solutions to balance the situation and opportunities to support our army and military,” he said.

Herasymovych also said that Ukraine is forced to buy Russian gas in Hungary and Slovakia, while Ukraine’s own companies are prevented from extracting their own gas.

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