In Croatia, the arrest of the luxury yacht Royal Romance was lifted due to the absence of an indictment from the Office of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine

A Croatian court has lifted the arrest of Royal Romance yacht due to the absence of an indictment from the Ukrainian Prosecutor General’s Office.

This was reported on Telegram by Yaroslav Zheleznyak, an MP from the “Holos” party and the first deputy chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Finance, Tax, and Customs Policy of Ukraine.

The elite vessel, 92 meters long, is valued at $200 million. Ukraine had planned to sell it, but this possibility is now in question.

“Moreover, Ukraine may essentially lose this asset. The District Court of Split lifted the arrest on the yacht due to the absence of an indictment in the criminal case from the Prosecutor General’s Office,” noted the MP.

At the same time, the yacht does not officially belong to Viktor Medvedchuk as some media reported before.

In May of this year, it became known that Ukrainian billionaire and “European Chicken King” Yuriy Kosyuk, the owner of MHP, which acquired Croatian company Perutnina Ptuj, is buying the yacht Royal Romance.

However, Russian citizen Alexey Inkin, who according to documents previously purchased the vessel and is considered its owner, is suing Croatia for more than 35 million euros as compensation for damages incurred due to the imposed ban on disposal. This amount could increase several times, reaching over 130 million euros, if the value of the yacht is taken into account and the case is taken to international legal forums, as claimed by his lawyers.

The history of the Royal Romance yacht is complex. It is unofficially linked to Ukrainian politician Viktor Medvedchuk. In 2022, Ukraine requested international legal assistance from Croatia to seize assets belonging to Viktor Medvedchuk as part of a treason case. The story becomes more complicated: a decision by the Lviv District Court on April 11, 2022, cited that a similar decision to confiscate the yacht had been made earlier based on information obtained during pre-trial actions in Medvedchuk’s case in 2016.