U.S.-based attorneys with Hughes Hubbard & Reed are helping a collection of Ukrainian retail gas companies in their fight to claw back funds from Russia following the 2014 seizure of their property during Vladimir Putin’s annexation of Crimea.

The filing, submitted April 9 on behalf of Ukraine-based Stabil LLC, Rubenor LLC, Rustel LLC, and other owner-operators of Crimean petrol stations, asks a D.C. federal judge to enforce an over $34 million award issued by the Geneva-based Permanent Court of Arbitration in 2019. The complaint points to the Swiss tribunal’s ruling, which found Russia violated international law when it nationalized the companies after taking over the peninsula.