A Ukrainian oligarch and former co-owner of Privatbank, Ihor Kolomoyskyy, has said that he will be able to return the bank into his ownership soon.
“The International Monetary Fund knows that PrivatBank will be returned (to me) in the near future,” Kolomoyskyy told the Kyiv Post on the phone.
He told the Kyiv Post that he did not know why his Nikopol Ferroalloy Plant obtained the one-year lease for the parking lot in front of PrivatBank's head office.
He said that the plant was justly demanding compensation from Privatbank, and threatened that the protest could escalate if the bank does not give in.
“If PrivatBank keeps acting like that, I think that the plant workers might enter PrivatBank,” Kolomoyskyy threatened, implying that the workers will storm the bank, according to the KyivPost.
The website noted that Kolomoyskyy has been known to give brazen statements in the media.
On 18 April 2019, Kyiv's district administrative court granted Kolomoyskyy's lawsuit against the National Bank of Ukraine and the Cabinet of Ministers over the legality of Privatbank's nationalisation.
The ruling has not taken effect because it was appealed.