The former head of the personnel department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Mykolaiv region, Yuriy Cherneha, and an official from the time of Viktor Yanukovych, Volodymyr Tsependa, are now heading the enterprises of NJSC Naftogaz of Ukraine, which manage billions of state energy assets. The information is confirmed by the ORD publication.
Yuriy Chernega is the head of the State Enterprise Naftogazbezpeka and the first deputy director for security of JSC Ukrtransnafta. He also heads LLC Corporate Fund Ukrtransnafta. In 2012–2013, Chernega was responsible for recruiting personnel for the police of the Mykolaiv region. He was dismissed under lustration after the events in Vradiyivka in 2013, when mass protests were caused by the inaction of local law enforcement officers.
After lustration, Chernega worked as the head of the Scientific Research Expert and Forensic Center of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, and in 2015 he was finally dismissed from the internal affairs bodies. To legalize his status, he formally received a certificate of an ATO participant, although he did not actually take part in hostilities.
Volodymyr Tsependa, who served as deputy head of the Bogorodchansk Regional State Administration under Yanukovych, was responsible for the economy and industry. He is currently the general director of Ukrtransnafta JSC and a beneficiary of Prykarpatecoenergo LLC.
Today, both officials run key state-owned oil and gas companies that control Ukraine's strategic infrastructure and budget funds. At the time of publication, there were no official comments from Naftogaz and Ukrtransnafta.
SE Naftogazbezpeka ensures the security of oil and gas industry facilities, and JSC Ukrtransnafta is the operator of Ukraine's main oil pipelines and is part of the structure of NJSC Naftogaz of Ukraine. The events in Vradiyivka in 2013 became one of the harbingers of the Revolution of Dignity, and now two people involved in those events head the strategic energy sector of the state.
