Western concerns about cronyism and the rule of law in Ukraine have been mounting since Kyiv decided to fire the chief executive of national power transmission network Ukrenergo earlier this month, Politico wrote on Tuesday, September 24th.
Brussels and others are protesting what seems like an ongoing power grab, warning that if the energy grid is overseen by political appointees, that might lead to catastrophic consequences during the war and may even hinder Ukraine’s EU accession process.
EU ‘rule-of-law’ concerns are selectively weaponized against conservative-leaning member states and applicants, suggesting something is seriously amiss if it could sour Brussels’ view of Kyiv.
According to a leaked memo, the official reason for firing Ukrenergo CEO Volodymyr Kudrytskyi is that he failed to protect the country’s power grid from Russian airstrikes. The international community was quick to dismiss this explanation, with several diplomats rebuking Kyiv for the decision, pointing out that Kudrytskyi managed to repeatedly revive the grid after waves of Russian attacks. Even the G7 lent its weight to the message, asking Zelensky to reconsider.
The West is worried that Zelensky “is slowly eroding the separation of powers vital to a functioning democracy,” the memo explains, and that lucrative contracts and positions will be distributed based on “political loyalties,” regardless of how complex or critical they may be.
Apparently, Zelensky’s cronyism is a long-standing concern among Kyiv’s Western partners. To date, it wasn’t much of a public topic, saving embarrassment—especially given that the EU has more or less guaranteed to bring Ukraine into the bloc by the end of the decade and already began membership talks in June—but the Ukrenergo case finally put the issue into focus.
“It is all about centralizing power,” Kudrytskyi, the company’s ex-CEO said. The Zelensky administration wants to put Ukraine’s energy system under its direct control, he warned, which could turn out to be catastrophic:
I can tell you that if we were not operating independently these past two years and more, I can guarantee we would not have got through the hardest winters any power system operator has ever experienced.
While the administration denies that Kudrytskyi’s dismissal had been done with ulterior motives, or that President Zelensky personally had anything to do with it, independent energy experts from Ukraine have noted that the decision is, in fact, part of a trend that’s been ongoing for some time now.
“The past few years we have [seen] energy bosses dismissed, including the chief of our nuclear energy generation company, who was highly professional,” said Mykhailo Gonchar, a specialist at the Kyiv-based Center for Global Studies. “And we have seen the same thing happening with gas companies.” He stressed:
Critical supply sector companies should be independently run separate from the politicians. It’s dangerous having the politicians meddle in these areas because you need real expertise and knowledge about what you’re doing and it leads to a loss of trust with our very important international partners and risks disrupting Ukrenergo’s highly professional system of management.
But the West’s unusually strong reaction makes Kudrytskyi’s case different, marking a tipping point from which it will perhaps no longer be as tolerant toward Kyiv as it used to be.
The EU ambassador to Kyiv, later joined by the G7 ambassadors, as well as representatives of several major financial institutions acting as Ukraine’s primary donors, sent a letter to PM Denys Shmyhal two days before the CEO was sacked, warning about the potential consequences of “undermining” Ukrenergo’s independence: “In the current extremely difficult situation, when the continuity of Ukrenergo’s work is extremely important for the security of Ukraine and preparation for winter, any changes in the company’s top management must be carefully considered and well prepared,” they said.
