Automatically translated version. May contain inaccuracies compared to the original.
Companies of Hennadiy Butkevych overturned State Geological Service orders in court after inspections of strategic deposits
LLC “Titan-Apatite Group” and LLC “CFR Group” succeeded in court in having orders of the State Service of Geology and Subsoil of Ukraine canceled following inspections conducted in March 2026 as part of Prime Minister Yuliia Svyrydenko’s directive to audit strategic and “dormant” subsoil assets.
Reported by NADRA.INFO citing recently published rulings of the Kyiv District Administrative Court dated 02 November.
LLC “Titan-Apatite Group”
The company operates the Yurivska license area (titanium ores, native apatite-ilmenite, special permit No. 4998) in Zhytomyr region. The special permit was acquired at an online auction of the State Service of Geology and Subsoil in 2019. The distance from the license area to the border with the Republic of Belarus is about 9,6 km.
Among the violations recorded by the inspectors were failure to meet deadlines for a number of items of the work program, as well as failure to provide documents and various materials related to the inspection.
Before filing a lawsuit, LLC “Titan-Apatite Group” submitted objections to the inspection report to the State Service of Geology and Subsoil and appealed the order.
The company rejected all allegations and insisted that the deadlines for the work had not expired, referring to the relevant provision of the Subsoil Code of Ukraine regarding automatic extension of deadlines. They also stated that work at the deposit was constrained by objective circumstances: Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine, threats to personnel, the proximity of the license area to the Belarusian border, prohibitions from the Zhytomyr Regional Defense Council and notices from the Zhytomyr Regional Military Administration. Force majeure was confirmed by a Chamber of Commerce certificate. Moreover, the case materials show that the company was not idle: it carried out work available during wartime in stages, adjusted the project, and conducted drilling and studies. Failure to complete the full set of works did not mean abandonment of the Program. The court document also notes that documentation and materials were submitted to the State Service in the part that could be prepared.
At the same time, in the list of deadlines provided in the decision, the completion date for none of the disputed stages of the Work Program fell before 24 February 2022, therefore the court rejected the Service’s arguments, took into account the automatic extension of deadlines and other circumstances, and found the order unlawful and canceled it, as well as the corresponding item in the appendix to the State Service’s order extending the deadline for eliminating violations.
In the language of the court document: “...the violations specified in the Act were recorded by the defendant (the State Service of Geology and Subsoil – Ed.) unreasonably and unlawfully, since the deadlines for the performance of work according to the Work Program fall during the period of martial law declared in the country and during the period of martial law, which are automatically extended by the legislator” (we recommend reading the full text of the decision, which has not yet entered into legal force and may be appealed).
LLC “CFR Group”
The company holds the Yastrebetska license area for zircon-rare earth-fluorite ores (special permit No. 4999 also purchased at a State Service auction in 2019) in Zhytomyr region, at a distance of 11,4 km from the border with the Republic of Belarus.
The violations recorded by the inspection were similar. And, as in the case of LLC “Titan-Apatite Group,” among the disputed stages of the Work Program (mentioned in the court decision) we did not observe any whose deadline had expired before 24 February 2022.
LLC “CFR Group” offered similar arguments: the deadlines for the disputed stages were automatically extended, use of the license area was prevented by security restrictions and force majeure, part of the work had been performed, and the provision of documentation depended on the sequence of studies and completion of stages; explanations and documents were, however, submitted to the State Service.
Thus, LLC “CFR Group” carried out the following works on its site: topographic works and hydrogeological studies were performed, sample preparation and geochemical and mineralogical studies were conducted at the SGS Canada laboratory, and the company worked on preparing the preliminary geological-economic assessment report (GEO-2), which is necessary to begin designing and conducting geological and prospecting work.
“That is, the plaintiff, using the norm of part 6 of article 15 of the Subsoil Code of Ukraine regarding the automatic extension of deadlines for performance of works, carries out measures to implement the Work Program and reports to the defendant on their implementation,” states the decision, by which the court canceled the order and the corresponding item in the State Service’s order about the deadline for eliminating violations (we recommend reading the full text of the decision, which also has not entered into legal force and may be appealed).
Context
The beneficial owner of LLC “Titan-Apatite Group” (YouControl) and LLC “CFR Group” (YouControl) is Hennadiy Butkevych (founder of BGV Group Management, co-owner of ATB), minority participants are Hero of Ukraine Oleksandr Nastenko and Vitalii Yakymenko (father of Pavlo Yakymenko – head of the Subcommittee on Protection and Rational Use of Subsoil of the Committee on Environmental Policy and Nature Management of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine). Both companies are registered in Kyiv and are headed by Serhiy Troyan.
As of 2025 the companies of Mr. Butkevych and his partners collectively controlled 13 subsoil license areas in Ukraine and initiated tenders for production-sharing agreements at four uranium ore deposits.
The group’s flagship BGV project at the Balakhivske graphite deposit (LLC “Rozvytok Pobuzhzhia”) was included in the list of strategic initiatives of the EU.
The State Service’s order based on the spring inspections was also appealed by LLC “Perzhanska Ore Company” of Butkevych (ruling).
In October 2026 it became known that the U.S.-Ukraine Rebuilding Fund (URIF) approved the largest investment package to date in projects aligned with the shared economic and strategic interests of Ukraine and the United States. In particular, the creation of a joint URIF and BGV Group Management investment platform to develop a portfolio of critical-minerals projects in Ukraine is planned. At the initial stage, the platform envisions the possibility of investing up to 30 million dollars in development programs for individual projects. The initial focus will be on assets related to rare earth elements, beryllium, and zirconium.
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