Sukha Balka PJSC, part of DCH Group, states that it considers the continued blocking of UAH 357.9 million in confirmed VAT budget refunds unacceptable. This is not a disputed amount, but the company’s own funds, for which the state has already verified and confirmed its right to reimbursement.
Ukrainian businesses are operating under shelling, restoring damaged production facilities, and coping with disruptions to energy supplies, logistics, and labor shortages. Metallurgical enterprises are losing employees and production capacity as a result of direct Russian strikes. Farmers are facing rising costs and a shortage of working capital due to attacks on ports and restrictions on maritime logistics. In such times, the state should do everything possible to ensure that Ukrainian enterprises can withstand these challenges and, at the very least, should not create additional threats through its own inaction.
As of September 2026, the State Tax Service of Ukraine had reviewed and approved for reimbursement UAH 357.9 million in VAT to Sukha Balka. The formal grounds for blocking the payment were the former presence among the company’s shareholders of an individual whose personal details matched those of a person on a sanctions list. The matter concerned 200 shares — approximately 0.000023% of the company’s charter capital — with a total nominal value of UAH 10 (!!!). Such a stake could never have provided control over the enterprise, and the identity of the former shareholder as the sanctioned individual was never duly established in court.
On November 7, 2025, all shares held by minority shareholders were compulsorily purchased as part of a squeeze-out procedure, meaning that the disputed shareholder is no longer part of the ownership structure. On January 16, 2026, the State Tax Service notified the Treasury that there were no grounds for applying restrictions to the company. The Treasury confirmed that the approved amounts had become and remain available for transfer. Nevertheless, the funds have still not been paid, while three written requests from the Treasury to the Ministry of Finance have gone unanswered.
This is not a request for a tax benefit or state aid for a private business. Sukha Balka is demanding the return of its own funds, the company’s right to which has been confirmed by the state itself. More than 2,000 people work at the enterprise, 426 employees are defending Ukraine as members of the Armed Forces, and dozens have been killed. Blocking UAH 357.9 million poses a real threat to the payment of wages, settlements for energy resources, and the uninterrupted operation of the mine.
Sukha Balka calls on the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine and the Ministry of Finance of Ukraine to immediately remove the administrative obstacles, and calls on the State Treasury Service of Ukraine to transfer, without further delay, the UAH 357.9 million in approved VAT budget refunds. A mechanism created to restrict sanctioned individuals must not, through bureaucratic literalism, be turned against a Ukrainian enterprise, its employees, and the country’s economy.
When Russia is trying to stop Ukrainian enterprises with missiles, state institutions should help them withstand the pressure, rather than create new reasons for them to shut down.
