What does the resignation of the head of "Ukrenergo" Volodymyr Kudrytskyi mean

He himself confirmed this on his Facebook page: "On September 2, the supervisory board of Ukrenergo decided to prematurely terminate my powers at an extraordinary meeting by the decision of the majority of its members."

Kudrytskyi's last working day in office is September 4.

Oleksiy Brecht, a member of the board responsible for operation and restoration of high-voltage infrastructure, will act as chairman. And the new permanent head of the company must be chosen at a competition.

Volodymyr Kudrytskyi said that the meeting was convened on his initiative, "because he is convinced that the issue of dismissal and appointment of the head of Ukrenergo is the exclusive authority of the supervisory board."

According to him, this is important not only as a principle, but also for the transparency and financial stability of business, which allowed Ukrenergo to attract one and a half billion euros for the restoration of the energy system from international partners.

He denied that his resignation was related to the poor protection of Ukrenergo's facilities from Russian strikes, and stated that a campaign to discredit the company had been launched "in anonymous Telegram channels and some mass media."

Kudrytskyi's statement was preceded by a message from two independent members of the company's board posted on Ukrenergo's Facebook page.

These two members - Daniel Dobbeni and Peder Andreasen - also announced their early resignation due to their disagreement with the decision to dismiss Kudrytskyi.

"The decision on the early dismissal of the head of Ukrenergo is politically motivated and, according to the results of the presented report, there are no valid grounds for it," the report says.

There have been no official comments from the Ministry of Energy, in whose sphere of responsibility the company operates, so far.

Volodymyr Kudrytskyi headed Ukrenergo since 2020.

During his leadership, the conflict with the Ministry of Energy began in 2021, when the company gained some independence from the government thanks to the corporate governance reform. Despite what belongs to the state.

Since the beginning of the war, Kudrytskyi's name appeared in the case of inflated prices for body armor, which the company's security department purchased in March-April 2022 at prices higher than market prices. In 2024, he had to respond to reports in the media about a monthly salary of UAH 2 million. At that time, he stated that it had not changed since 2020, while the salaries of Ukrenergo employees increased by an average of 70% during this period.

During Kudrytskyi's leadership, the disconnection from the Russian and the joining of Ukraine to the European energy system also occurred, which took place immediately after the start of the large-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Most importantly, Kudrytskyi managed the company that is the operator of the country's energy system during a full-scale war and massive Russian strikes on Ukrainian energy infrastructure in the fall of 2022 and spring-summer of 2024.

He spoke about the results of these shellings and preparations for the winter in an interview that turned out to be the last major one in this position.

Reasons for Kudrytskyi's dismissal

Assumptions about the possible resignation of the head of Ukrenergo Kudrytskyi entered the public space since August 30, when President Zelenskyi held a meeting of the stake.

Among the three main issues that were considered was energy, and more specifically, the state of liquidation of the consequences of Russian strikes and "analysis of some issues regarding the construction of defensive structures." This was stated in the official message of the president's telegram channel after the rate meeting.

Unofficially, as Forbes Ukraine wrote with reference to its sources among the bet participants, a decision was made to fire Kudrytskyi, but he himself refused to write a resignation letter.

However, already on Monday, September 2, deputy from "Holos" Yaroslav Zheleznyak announced on his telegram page that the decision to dismiss "one of the most adequate people in the energy sector" was adopted by the company's board - by four votes to two.

Since the meeting of the stake, the official reason for the dismissal of the head of "Ukrenergo" is the insufficient protection of the company's facilities against Russian strikes.

However, he himself denied this, adding that he presented the council members with a detailed report on each object, about which there were no questions.

"I cannot go into details, but more than 60 anti-drone shelters have been built at Ukrenergo substations, almost at every substation. Such engineering structures were built only at Ukrenergo facilities, Kudrytskyi explained, adding that not a single hryvnia was spent on them from the state budget, because they were built with international support.

According to him, they saved dozens of auto transformers this year.

"This does not mean that after the arrival of several dozen missiles, the energy system will not feel the impact. This means that we will be able to quickly, in a few days, resume its work", explained the head of Ukrenergo.

Experts say that the protection of Ukrenergo facilities was the best among all players in the energy market.

"Ukrenergo" is the only one that properly built protective structures. And in time we stocked up on additional equipment for a quick replacement," Deputy Zheleznyak wrote in his telegram announcing Kudrytskyi's resignation.

"Actually, Ukrenergo has built more protective structures than all companies combined," says Volodymyr Omelchenko, director of energy programs at the Razumkov Center.

"What if these 100 missiles (as on the day of the massive attack on August 26, 2024 - Ed .) had landed on Energoatom or Ukrhydroenergo, would there not have been destruction? No, we see that both the Trypilska and Dnipro HPPs have been completely destroyed," says the expert, assuming that the consequences of the latest attack would have been much worse if there were no protective structures of Ukrenergo.

"As for state-owned companies, Ukrenergo has a good supply of equipment and well-trained repair crews. And, in fact, the latest attack showed that the defense they have been building for the past few months is working," Oleksandr Kharchenko, director of the Energy Research Center, told Radio NV.

According to him, the effectiveness of the protection will be proven by the fact that, despite the destruction, 10 days after the attack, the consequences will no longer be felt.

Similarly, the critics of the decision to remove Kudrytsky quite unanimously talk about his real reason - the desire to "control the flow" of money that the company itself earns, and also receives from international partners for the reconstruction of the energy industry.

"The real reason is an animal desire to sit on all financial flows: 100 billion UAH annually and 1.5 billion euros of credit lines", - believes a member of the parliamentary finance committee, Yaroslav Zheleznyak, who warned of a negative reaction from international partners.

Volodymyr Omelchenko believes that accusations against Kudrytskyi regarding improper protection of Ukrenergo facilities are only a reason for his dismissal. And the real reason is "the attempt of certain influential groups in the government to capture financial flows to Ukrenergo, which they could not participate in due to the fact that Ukrenergo was supported by Western partners and donors."

"Ukrenergo attracted 1.5 billion dollars in grants and loans, the entire Ministry of Energy - 500 million", - Oleksandr Kharchenko offers to compare the two figures.

How the light in homes and the reform of corporate governance are connected

Against the background of reports of the resignation of the head of Ukrenergo, Inna Sovsun, an MP from "Holos" from the Committee on European Integration, published an appeal to the OP and the government, signed by the head of the European Commission's representation in Ukraine, the business ombudsman, as well as the heads of international financial organizations that provide money for reconstruction of energy, EBRD and IFC.

It states that in the current difficult situation, a change in the leadership of Ukrenergo may jeopardize collective assistance to Ukraine in the field of energy security and preparations for winter.

The authors of the letter call on the authorities, if it is about the dismissal of the head of a leading company at such a moment, to ensure "the highest standards of corporate management of state-owned companies." At the same time, they draw attention to the fact that the decision to dismiss the top manager is made by the board, which will remain understaffed from 2022. Since then, another seventh member has not been appointed.

According to Sovsun, such a decision will have negative consequences. First of all, it will show that the reform of corporate governance, which is one of the cornerstones of Ukraine's advancement to the EU, can be put to rest.

"If there is a political decision from above, the shareholders of state-owned companies — citizens of Ukraine — should step up and sincerely believe that the party's wise decision will lead the company to new heights," the deputy writes sarcastically on Facebook.

If it is more practical and down-to-earth, then, Sovsun believes, "Ukrainian consumers will pay additional hours without electricity for political decisions where they should not be." After all, international donors are unlikely to be ready "just as willingly to give loans and grants to a company that does not meet the standards of corporate governance."

"The question is not about Kudrytskyi - is he bad or good," says Volodymyr Omelchenko. - And in the fact that everyone has once again made sure that we do not have state corporate governance and the principle of the rule of law."

Investment banker Serhii Fursa on Facebook explains the connection between light in homes and complex corporate management figuratively:

"A new word in corporate governance reform. To hell with all those supervisory boards, complex systems of checks and balances. That's all. The reptilians came up with it... And that's how they released Kudrytskyi - and gave light to people. Like Prometheus. What brings fire."

The analyst notes that it is not the first time for the Ukrainian leadership to lose the trust of its partners, and therefore it is "not scary". But it should be scary not because of "Mr. Kudrytskyi's personal career", but because such personnel changes take place in a certain way at a time when the Russians are increasing shelling, and the country will need even more help.

"And for quality help, we need trust on the part of those we ask for help. And with the delivery of equipment, which is not in an empty place has accumulated now. And for imports, which sometimes save us. And for financing, which is now willingly given, because they trust the management," he says.

What is the importance of NEC Ukrenergo

The national energy company "Ukrenergo" is the operator of the energy transmission system.

It is she who sees the whole picture in energy on a national scale, balances the current supply system from producers to consumers - including after strikes on energy facilities.

At the same time, Ukrenergo is also the link that connects Ukraine with the European energy system. It was she who conducted the negotiations on joining the European network, successfully completing these negotiations in the first days of the war. She is an observer member of ENTSO-E. Exports, imports, requests for emergency supplies of electricity between the country and the EU go through Ukrenergo.

However, as expert on atomic energy Olga Kosharna pointed out in an interview with "Glavred", it is "Ukrenergo", in accordance with the law on the electricity market, that once a year makes a report on the sufficiency of generating capacities of Ukraine for 10 years and revises it every year.

In other words, Ukrenergo not only balances the energy system today, but also models and plans its development in the future.

And, according to Kosharnaya, in the last report for 2023, the expansion of the generating capacity of "Energoatom" is not foreseen there - "there was a lack of storage systems for electric accumulators, fast maneuvering gas power, thermal power plants on biofuel are provided for."

Instead, it was "Energoatom" that began to actively plan the extension or new construction of capacities. And these projects are another topic that has recently received ambiguous assessments in the expert environment - both among supporters and opponents of nuclear energy.