The court did not allow the Ministry of Defense to return the canteen in Uzhgorod
9 March 00:21
The Commercial Court of Zakarpattia Region has dismissed the prosecutor’s claim to return the canteen in Uzhhorod, leased by Equital LLC, to the Ministry of Defense.
This is evidenced by the court’s decision of March 5, reports "Komersant Ukrainian" with reference to EP.
The case concerns the premises of the canteen “lit. A” with a total area of 307.1 square meters located at 2 Pushkin Square, Uzhhorod (now 2 Laborets Square).
It belongs to the Ministry of Defense and is on the balance sheet of the Western branch of the Viysktorgservice Concern. The regional branch of the State Property Fund in Lviv, Zakarpattia, and Volyn regions transferred the cafeteria to Equital LLC for temporary use under a lease agreement in 2021.
According to the prosecutor’s office, Equital does not use the premises for any intended purpose, as a result of which the sanitary and technical condition of these premises is systematically deteriorating, and the Ministry of Defense and the State Property Fund are unable to independently prevent its further destruction and decline.
In addition, the state-owned canteen is necessary to ensure the effective performance of defense tasks, but the fact that the premises are leased to Equital LLC makes it impossible to use them for the needs of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
Therefore, prosecutor Yulia Malik requested that the lease agreement be terminated and the canteen returned.
As the court noted, the report documenting the unsatisfactory sanitary condition of the dining hall does not confirm that the company is deliberately destroying it.
Regarding the critical need to use the premises to ensure the functioning of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, as provided for by the laws and conditions of martial law, the court noted that the agreement does not contain such grounds for terminating the lease agreement and that the prosecutor’s arguments are stated without reference to evidence. The prosecutor’s assertion that the canteen is currently necessary for defense purposes is general and does not contain specific facts or justifications that would indicate grounds for terminating the agreement.
As it turned out, Equital pays rent and regularly takes out insurance on the premises. The court did not receive any information about an insured event, and the prosecutor, while indicating that the tenant did not ensure the preservation of the leased property, did not specify the amount of damage caused to the canteen by the enterprise.
As a result, Judge Andriy Khudenko dismissed the prosecutor’s claim.
According to youcontrol, the founders of the Kyiv-based Equital LLC are Vasyl Lespukh from the Chernihiv region and Volodymyr Lytvynenko from the Cherkasy region, and the director is Nikita Lytvynenko. The company’s main activity is non-specialized wholesale trade.
