A Ukrainian court has ruled that the 2016 nationalization of a major bank owned by a powerful tycoon was illegal.
The court in Kiev ruled on Thursday that Privatbank, owned by tycoon Ihor Kolomoyskyi, was nationalized in 2016 illegally.
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It was not immediately clear how the government would return the bank, once Ukraine’s biggest private lender with a reported capital shortfall of $5 billion, to Kolomoyskyi.
Ukraine’s National Bank vowed to appeal the ruling.
Kolomoiskyi’s figure has loomed large in Ukraine in the past few weeks as the country goes to the polls to elect a new president Sunday. Kolomoyskyi is an archrival of incumbent President Petro Poroshenko. The tycoon is believed to have ties to Volomyr Zelenskiy, a comedian who emerged as an odds-on favorite in the race.
