FDMU “privatized” Black Sea Shipping Company despite court rulings

FDMU “privatized” the Black Sea Shipping Company while the court kept the doors closed for three years.

This was reported by the international investigative bureau Absolution.

FDMU Order No.1081 was signed on 29 May 2026: “A decision has been made to transform State Shipping Company ‘BSS’ into LLC ‘SSC BSS’, 100% of whose shares belong to the state.” And absolutely contrary to the current court decision. What the court told FDMU back in 2022–2023 — case No.910/6998/21. The plaintiff is the Ministry of Infrastructure. The defendant is that same FDMU.

🔸19.10.2022, Kyiv Commercial Court: FDMU Order No.545 of 25.04.2018 on the privatization of SSC BSS has been annulled.

🔸13.02.2023, Supreme Court: FDMU goes to cassation — the SC denies even opening proceedings.

🔸19.04.2023, Northern Commercial Court of Appeal: FDMU’s appeal was finally rejected. There is no substantive cassation. The decision has been in force for over 3 years.

But FDMU had another plan in 2026. Not a “sale at auction,” but a “transformation into an LLC.” Essentially — the same move into a corporate shell that is then quietly parceled out, divided into assets, and used to introduce “investors.” All that the court banned in 2022. Just through the backdoor.

📌 The balance-sheet valuation of BSS on FDMU’s papers is 83 million UAH. The price of the shipping company with 145 vessels in its history. Roughly like a one-room apartment in Troyeshchyna.

🗝 Real perimeter:

✔️450 million dollars of loan obligations secured by the fleet through London’s Ocean Agencies Ltd, formerly BLASCO UK, directors with Monegasque registration);

✔️12 bulk carriers at shipyards in China;

✔️37,93% of the Vietnamese port “Lotos”;

✔️ real estate and port infrastructure in Odesa.

🚫 Formally, the state enterprise “moves” to the LLC at the price of an apartment — with assets and obligations amounting to hundreds of millions of dollars within the perimeter. And all this — by order, contrary to the current court decision.

The order was signed by FDMU head Dmytro Natalukha; involved in implementing the scheme are subordinates Vitaliy Kovalenko and Vadym Vanchenko. On the other side — Yuriy Berezhnoy (from Luhansk) — acting president of BSS, in whose declaration NAPC found 12,6 million UAH of inaccuracies. Yuriy Harbuz — advisor to BSS, former head of Luhansk Regional State Administration.

And above them all, with a baton in hand and a Monegasque passport in his pocket, conducts Volodymyr Galanternik — a figure in NABU/SAP case No.42017000000001097 for 689 million UAH, internationally wanted, with an in-absentia status in the High Anti-Corruption Court. 25 years one scheme, one conductor, one country in the role of the chick from the well-known proverb.

☑️ NABU and SAP must understand that Order No.1081 is a ready procedural episode. The subjects are FDMU officials. The court decision in case No.910/6998/21 has been violated. The motive is asset extraction through corporatization. The top is Galanternik, which corresponds to Articles 364, 191 and 209 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.