Volodymyr Kudrytskyi, Chairman of the Board of NPC Ukrenergo, links the statement to the National Anti-Corruption Bureau about his alleged criminal offense to the case of the company’s purchase of bulletproof vests at the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
“This is an old, dead case of bulletproof vests that the company purchased at the request of the National Guard in early March 2022. We found several hundred bulletproof vests of class 4 at a price of UAH 16.4 thousand including VAT. At that time, it was significantly lower than the prices at which others were buying,” Kudrytskyi said at a briefing at the Ukraine Media Center in Kyiv on Friday.
According to him, apart from Ukrenergo, there are no claims against anyone, and from time to time “nameless political analysts” revive the case: either by throwing it into the media space or by writing statements to have the NPC checked once again.
The company’s CEO added that he treats this as an attempt to create an information throw-in and believes that “the case has not had and will not have any prospects in law enforcement agencies or in courts.”
Kudrytskyi suggested that the reason for his discrediting as the head of the company may be the active involvement of Ukrenergo in international financing, which has exceeded EUR 1.5 billion since the beginning of the full-scale war.
“Alternatively, some people are not satisfied with the EUR 1.5 billion of financing we have attracted since the beginning of the war. Maybe there are other reasons. In my opinion, this is just white noise,” said the head of the system operator.
Answering Energoreforma’s question about the reaction of international partners to the information about a possible criminal offense, Kudrytskyi noted that there was none. “Western partners have not reacted in any way.
There is no need to make any judgments. Trust is determined not by words, but by facts, and our partners have entrusted us with EUR1.5 billion, which is several times or even ten times more than any other company,” he said.
At the same time, Kudrytskyi emphasized that each artificial media attack leads to additional difficulties in attracting much-needed additional financial resources for the power system.
“The people who do this pursue their own selfish interests and, most likely, corrupt interests, but ultimately harm the interests of the state,” summarized the CEO of Ukrenergo.
The High Anti-Corruption Court, by its ruling of July 17, 2024, ordered the authorized persons of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine to enter information about a criminal offense into the Unified Register of Pre-trial Investigations (URPI) at the request of the person indicated in the ruling as person No. 6, dated June 28, 2024. The ruling states that the applicant raised the issue of possible criminal offenses committed by the Chairman of the Board of NPC Ukrenergo. The court notes that such a statement must be entered into the URPTI within 24 hours of its submission.
As reported, on June 26, the Security Service and the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine announced that they had exposed the head of one of the departments of NPC Ukrenergo, who is no longer employed by the company, for corruption during the purchase of bulletproof vests.
According to the investigation, this purchase resulted in budget losses of over UAH 10 million. The issue of choosing a measure of restraint against the suspect is being decided.
Since the beginning of the full-scale war, NPC Ukrenergo has attracted more than EUR 1.5 billion in international financing in the form of loans and grants, half of which was used to restore and reconstruct the grids. Another 24% was used to build passive protection, and 34% to maintain market liquidity. The largest amount of funding was provided by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) – EUR670 million. Another EUR324 million was received with the support of the German state development bank KfW, EUR224 million – from the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) and EUR136 million – from the European Investment Bank (EIB). July 18 NPC Ukrenergo and KfW agree on a EUR100 million grant. July 23 The EIB Group announces that it plans to allocate EUR86 million to Ukrenergo for the construction of drone shelters.
A EUR100 million grant agreement has been signed by Volodymyr Kudrytskyi, Chairman of the Board of NPC Ukrenergo, and Lorenz Gessner, Head of the Representative Office of the German state development bank KfW in Ukraine, the company said.
According to its Telegram post on Friday, the signing took place in Kyiv on Thursday in the presence of Deputy Energy Minister Roman Andarak and members of the EU Delegation to Ukraine.
It is noted that the European Commission has authorized KfW to provide Ukrenergo with funds from the EU’s special budget program Ukraine Investment Facility and to ensure the financing and implementation of a number of priority energy projects.
These include the modernization of high-voltage substations in the western regions of Ukraine and the development of interconnectors connecting it to the power system of continental Europe, as well as the repair and restoration of equipment destroyed or damaged by Russian shelling at high-voltage substations, and the purchase and supply of new equipment.
In addition, part of the funds should be used to strengthen the physical protection of Ukrenergo’s substations.
NPC noted that this grant is the second phase of the target program “Reconstruction and Restoration of Ukraine’s Electricity Transmission Infrastructure”, as the company signed an agreement with KfW on the first phase of the program worth EUR 15 million at the Berlin Conference on the Restoration of Ukraine-2024 in June.
In total, since the beginning of the full-scale war, Ukrenergo has attracted EUR324 million with the support of KfW, and the total amount of international assistance attracted amounted to EUR1.5 billion, the NPC summarized.
State-owned energy trader Energy Company of Ukraine (ECU) has transferred UAH 100.4 million in dividends to the state budget of Ukraine based on the results of its operations in 2023.
In a press release on Monday, the company said that by doing so, it became the first company to make such payments among all enterprises managed by the State Property Fund (SPF) of Ukraine.
“Today, our primary focus is to ensure reliable supply of electricity to Ukrainian consumers in the face of energy shortages. To this end, we are increasing imports, developing cooperation with electricity producers, and launching new products and services. At the same time, our activities create new sources of revenue for the state in a very difficult period for the Ukrainian economy,” commented Vitaliy Butenko, CEO of ECU.
According to Vitaliy Koval, Head of the SPFU, ESU demonstrates how state assets can work and generate significant profits for the state, and the dividends paid by the company will be a significant contribution to the state budget, which, in particular, finances the Ukrainian Defense Forces.
The company noted that the amount of dividends paid by it in the first five months of commercial activity in 2022 amounted to UAH 27.1 million.
As reported, Energy Company of Ukraine JSC is a national energy trading company established in the summer of 2022 that carries out operations for the purchase, sale and supply of energy resources, in particular through import and export operations.
“The company is one of the top 5 traders in Ukraine in terms of electricity sales and founded the first state-owned balancing group of electricity market participants, currently the second largest in Ukraine. The company is 100% owned by the state.
In 2023, the net profit of the company amounted to UAH 148.9 million, which is more than four times higher than in 2022, and contributions to the state budget amounted to UAH 209.4 million.
The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine has approved the payment of UAH 207.883 million in dividends by NPC Ukrenergo, which is 90% of the company’s consolidated profit for 2023, reduced by the amount of income from the distribution of cross-border crossing capacity last year.
The relevant decision is enshrined in the Resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers No. 589-r dated June 28, 2024, the text of which is published on the government portal.
Earlier, Volodymyr Kudrytskyi, CEO of Ukrenergo, reported that the NPC received about UAH 400 million in profit for UAH 83 billion in revenue in 2023.
The situation in the Ukrainian energy system next week will be perceptibly more difficult compared to the current week, said the Chairman of the Board of the NEC Ukrenergo Volodymyr Kudrytskyy.
“Next week will be more difficult for the energy system, because the heat wave will return and we will have a reduced capacity of nuclear power plants, if compared to the current week,” he said in an interview with Ukrayinska Pravda on Friday.
According to the NEC head, due to the massive shelling, the energy system has lost its reserve of strength and has become dependent on sudden changes in electricity consumption and weather, forcing it to balance by shutting down consumers.
“Our energy system, having lost more than 9 GW of capacity due to shelling, now has no reserve of strength. If earlier we had additional power plants that could be switched on promptly, we would overlap by switching on some hydro units or TPP units, now we simply do not have such a maneuver,” – explained Kudrytskyy.”
As previously reported, Energoatom announced that it would put a 1000 MW nuclear power plant unit under repair as part of a planned repair campaign in 2024. The company pointed out that, given this and the increase in electricity consumption in July, the generation deficit in the power system may increase.
Prime Minister Denys Shmygal noted that saving e/e will be part of Ukraine’s daily life in the coming years due to Russian attacks on the country’s energy sector.
Due to weather conditions as of Wednesday morning 237 settlements in Zhytomyr, Kyiv, Sumy, Khmelnytskyi, Cherkasy, Chernihiv regions and Kyiv remain without power supply, another 490 settlements are without power due to other reasons, including military operations, NEC Ukrenergo reported in Telegram.
According to the Ministry of Energy, the most settlements – 117 – without light in Kyiv region, another 46 – in Chernihiv region, 42 – in Khmelnytskyi, 14 – in Cherkasy, 13 – in Zhytomyr region and 5 – in Sumy region. In total, according to his information, without light 38 thousand subscribers.
According to Ukrenergo, the process of connecting consumers in Sumy region, where one of the energy facilities was damaged during a night drone attack, is ongoing. According to the Ministry of Energy, the Russian Federation attacked by drones a substation of the oblenergo in the border territory of Sumy region, as a result of which 1,016 subscribers in 14 settlements were de-energized.
At the same time, as Ukrenergo notes, it managed to promptly restore power supply to consumers in Kherson, who were de-energized due to the shutdown of several power facilities in the region during the air alert. Damage to buildings and equipment of one of them was discovered during the inspection.
In general, there is still a deficit in the energy system, as a result of which hourly shutdown schedules, as announced earlier, will be applied from 15:00 to 23:00.
At the same time, a record volume of imports from Romania, Slovakia, Poland, Hungary, Moldova is scheduled for today – 29,796 MWh with a maximum capacity in some hours up to 1,689 MW, which corresponds to the maximum possible value. The last record was recorded on Saturday – 29,100 MWh.
