The head of Ukraine’s electric company was fired on Monday, the utility said, amid accusations of political interference and a week after major Russian airstrikes on the power grid caused blackouts in Kiev and other cities.
Volodymyr Kudrytskyi – who was appointed head of Ukrainergo in 2020 before a full-scale Russian invasion – was removed as CEO after a supervisory board vote on Monday, the board said in a statement released on Tuesday.
Several Ukrainian media outlets, including Ukrainian Pravda, Forbes And sensor.netMr Kudritsky was blamed for failing to complete protective fortifications at Russia’s power plants, government sources said. 26 August strike – Most targeted energy infrastructure after 2022 invasion.
Mr. Kudritsky denied in a Facebook post on Tuesday that he was fired for failing to protect infrastructure and said he was the victim of a smear campaign by unknown people trying to gain control of the utility.
The shooting has set off a potentially significant political battle over the country’s energy sector, which has been one of Russia’s main targets in recent years as it seeks to undermine the Ukrainian economy and domestic support for the war.
Two members of Ukrainergo’s supervisory board, Daniel Dobny and Peder Andreessen, said in statements that they resigned in protest at the firing, calling the decision “politically motivated.”
On Tuesday, four government officials also submitted their resignation requests to Ukraine’s parliament, According to Parliament Speaker Ruslan Stefanchuk. It includes key figures, such as Oleksandr Kamyshyn, Minister of Strategic Industry of Ukraine, and Denis Maliuska, Minister of Justice of Ukraine, as well as the Minister of Environment and the Chairman of the State Property Fund.
Mr. Kudrytsky’s firing could also alienate donors who have helped keep the power system afloat, Svyatoslav Pavlyuk of Energy Efficient Cities of Ukraine, an advocacy group for the energy industry, wrote in a post on Facebook. “The consequences of such decisions will be big,” he said.
On Monday, Russian shelling damaged one of two electric lines supplying power to the Russian-held Zaporizhia nuclear power plant, posing a threat to reactor cooling pumps just as United Nations nuclear regulators planned to visit the site.
After being captured by Russian forces in early 2022, the Zaporizhia nuclear plant, the largest in Europe, has been inactive for most of the war, but still needs power for cooling. It relies on overhead lines of the Ukrainian grid that cross the front lines and are at risk.
Ukraine’s nuclear energy company, Energoatom, said in a statement that lines damaged in Monday’s bombing posed a risk because if another power source was also cut, the plant would have to rely on backup diesel generators for short periods of time. Many since the invasion of Russia.
Similar damage was caused by an attack in late August, which forced the temporary shutdown of four nuclear reactors in Ukrainian government-controlled territory as a safety measure.
The director of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Rafael Grossi, was in Kiev on Tuesday ahead of a planned visit to the Zaporizhia station. Mr Grossi wrote on social media that his goal was to “continue aid and help prevent a nuclear accident”.
After two years of strikes on energy infrastructure, a rolling blackout now affects all of Ukraine. Two large hydroelectric power plants have been destroyed or heavily damaged, and nearly half of the generating capacity of the country’s thermal power plants has been destroyed, along with damage to transformer stations.
With most homes without power for several hours a day, dozens of Ukrainian companies do not have solar panels and backup batteries in stock. In some cases, the waiting time for purchases is more than a month. Most apartments are already dark every evening.
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