On June 2, the Commercial Court of Cherkasy Region approved a preventive restructuring plan for PRAT "Cherkasy Khimvolokno." The enterprise leases the Cherkasy CHP — the main source of heat for the city — and has accumulated debts exceeding 914 million hryvnias to three creditors. To avoid bankruptcy, the company received a payment schedule. The question is at whose expense.
Who owes whom and how much
The largest debt is to state-owned "Naftogaz Trading": over 881 million hryvnias. According to the restructuring plan, the company receives a 36-month payment deferral, while penalties, late fees, and inflationary losses are written off completely. Sense Bank, with a 9.8 million hryvnia debt, agreed to a five-month payment schedule. The Main Office of the State Tax Service in Cherkasy Region — to a three-month deferral of expected environmental tax debt for the third quarter of 2026 in the amount of over 23 million hryvnias.
All three creditors unanimously approved the plan at a meeting on May 14 — before the court decision. In the ruling itself, the court justified the necessity of the procedure as follows: restructuring is needed for "stable operation of the Cherkasy CHP," which is leased by the enterprise until 2050.
"The enterprises have reached a qualitatively new level of profitability"
— from official materials of Skribliak's group regarding CHP management, cited by Suspilne Chernihiv
PRAT "Cherkasy Khimvolokno's" revenue for 2025 alone, according to Opendatabot, amounts to over 5.6 billion hryvnias. Against this backdrop, a 914 million debt looks not like an enterprise crisis, but as a consequence of specific management decisions.
Who is behind the company
The beneficiary of "Cherkasy Khimvolokno" is Anatoliy Skribliak, a former member of the Ukrainian Parliament. According to ORD publication data, he is hiding in Spain and is involved in at least several criminal proceedings.
- In 2019, the SBU opened proceedings No. 22019270000000059 under articles on terrorism financing and procurement of resources from occupied territories — the investigation established that coal from the temporarily occupied Luhansk region was arriving at Skribliak's CHP.
- In 2021, new proceedings No. 22021101110000160 were opened; searches at the enterprises were conducted only in 2023.
- A separate investigation is underway into a scheme of fictitious contracts for forming a tax credit and withdrawing operating funds: in 2019, enterprises controlled by Skribliak at four CHPs — Cherkasy, Chernihiv, Sumy, and Darnytskyy — were withdrawing funds to accounts of related companies in parallel with signing loan agreements with Alfa-Bank for over 500 million hryvnias.
As of August 2025, while preparations for the new heating season are underway, the debt of consumers to the Cherkasy CHP exceeds 158 million hryvnias — of which over 152 million is the debt of the city's population.
A mechanism without oversight
Preventive restructuring is a tool provided for by Ukrainian legislation for enterprises facing bankruptcy threat but still capable of settling debts. The key condition: creditors must approve the plan. In this case, all three — the state company, the bank, and the tax authority — did so unanimously and voluntarily. The plan does not provide for any external audit of the reasons for debt accumulation.
Write-off of penalties and late fees to "Naftogaz Trading" means that the state company is effectively subsidizing the restructuring of a private enterprise whose owner is abroad under conditions of active criminal proceedings.
If "Cherkasy Khimvolokno" fulfills the plan and pays off the debts within three years — the matter will close by itself. But if during this time none of the criminal proceedings against Skribliak reach court, the Cherkasy CHP will enter the 2028 heating season with the same lessee and the same owner — only without debts to "Naftogaz."
