Lviv Bus Plant shut down

Plant's Press Secretary Oksana Horak told Kommersant-Ukraine about this.

“The plant has fulfilled all contractual obligations to its customer cities that purchase our vehicles. But they have not paid on contracts yet,” the Press Secretary explained.

The Kommersant source at the enterprise says that the plant's management has sent workers on vacation without pay.

The LAZ sources say the plant is unable to pay bills for electricity and heating. "We can not allow people working in cold premises,” Horak said, adding that the plant also is unable to pay the January wages to its personnel.

The LAZ sources assure that a debt to the plant makes up about UAH 50 million, out of these, about UAH 20 million is the Lviv debt. Sevastopol and Kremenchuk owed by UAH 4 million each to the plant, the LAZ refused to name other debtor cities.

Lviv Mayor Andriy Sadovy says the city is not able to repay the debt to the plant - the Oshchadbank refused to renew the credit line to the city. In addition, the city has a counter-claim against the enterprise. "Today the plant has outstanding debts for land rent, electricity and heating. Therefore, the city's debts are fully covered by the plant's obligations to us,” the Mayor said. According to him, the city expects to solve this problem soon.