Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky said that already this summer Ukraine and its partners should prepare an action plan based on the Peace Formula to restore energy security in the country.
He said this at a press conference in Warsaw: “Our Polish partners are fully informed about the situation in the energy system of Ukraine. Already this summer we must provide a prepared action plan within the framework of the Peace Formula to return energy security to Ukraine.”
A few days before, it was reported that even at a meeting of the Headquarters they discussed the development of a plan for preparing the energy sector for work in autumn and winter conditions.
Statements, large-scale plans, press conferences... Only Ukrainians continue to sit without electricity, and winter will come unexpectedly again, exposing the helplessness and emptiness in the heads of the leaders of the country's energy complex.
Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, the Russian Federation has destroyed more than half of Ukraine's energy generation: its figure has fallen from 55 GW to an estimated 11-12 GW, most of the country's thermal and hydroelectric power plants have been destroyed by Russian missile attacks. Without resistance or battle, the largest Zaporozhye nuclear power plant in Europe was surrendered to the enemy.
However, the destruction of the Ukrainian energy industry does not only occur during military operations. It is being destroyed by corruption, unprofessional politics, and unbalanced and incompetent decisions by officials of the Ministry of Energy.
Therefore, it is not surprising that in the conditions of a terrible war, the leadership of the Ministry of Energy and Energoatom was unable to protect and ensure the restoration of the energy industry and the nuclear industrial complex of Ukraine.
Probably everyone has seen how Minister Galushchenko sadly talks on the channels of a single marathon about the destruction of energy facilities by the enemy. But no one saw his report on the “mastered” billions that were supposed to go to protecting the energy sector from enemy attacks. No one heard his report on the use of the enormous financial assistance provided by our partners for the restoration and development of Ukraine's energy sector.
What was the minister doing in 2021, when intensive, unhidden preparations for war were underway in Russia? What was done in the first year and a half of the war to protect generation and the power grid? Why, for six months after the occupation of the Zaporozhye NPP, did its units continue to operate at capacity? At the same time, several times the station was on the verge of a serious accident. Only dedication and highly qualified personnel saved the country from a nuclear disaster.
The top political leaders of the state still have no idea how many steps away from disaster the country was then. And the minister and president of NNEGC Energoatom, with the blessing of the nuclear regulatory inspectorate, at that time earned money from exporting electricity, saving Europe from “freezing” in the summer. The National Security and Defense Council, the Prosecutor General's Office, NABU, the SBI, the SBU and other fighters for the purity of our ranks still don’t know about this?
These same authorities still have not dealt with large-scale corruption in the energy sector, with inflated estimates and purchase prices.
One can recall at least the construction of the Centralized Spent Nuclear Fuel Storage Facility (CSSF) with additional billions of dollars in funding, bypassing tender procedures and the Prozzoro electronic platform. By the way, Minister Galushchenko and the President of NNEGC Energoatom Kotin publicly staged performances several times with the launch of this “object of the century,” although it strangely still does not start up.
Where are the new nuclear units that should already be operational? After all, both geniuses of investment processes promised to build them in 2.5-3 years, and 4 years have already passed since the first statement of 2020!
In this material, I want to discuss not corruption schemes, but strategic issues on which the survival and future of both the national energy sector and the country as a whole depend. No electricity - no country. Maybe “those at the top” will finally understand this?
An important topic for every Ukrainian is the increase in electricity tariffs. Everyone well remembers President Zelensky’s assurances that there will be no increase until the end of the war. Along with the “necessary” rapid increase in tariffs, the Cabinet of Ministers receives a message that there is no money in the budget to pay social assistance and increase pensions in conditions of powerful inflation and devaluation of the hryvnia. By the way, the leaders of the Cabinet of Ministers do not explain where they found the money to increase salaries for government officials?
The question is not even about tariffs as such. The question is what they should cover, what they actually cover, and how the funds earned from generating electricity and selling it are used. We need to answer people why they don’t have electricity if they pay for it regularly.
A multi-hour power outage, coupled with a significant increase in tariffs, affects not only the living conditions and empty wallets of Ukrainians. This is a blow to the remnants of industry, in particular defense, to jobs, to the defense of the country!
With the destruction of the “reliably protected” thermal and hydropower generation of the Ministry of Energy, the lion’s share of consumption is covered, thank God, by intact nuclear power plants. The cost of the electricity they generate is quite stable. But the leadership of the Ministry of Energy and Energoatom explain the increase in tariffs by the need to finance the completion of two power units at the Khmelnytsky NPP. Perhaps they have already found the necessary nuclear reactors and even agreed on the price for their purchase?
We are talking about two Russian reactors that Bulgaria bought many years ago and then, under pressure from the EU, refused to use them. The Ukrainian energy industry is again being pushed into dependence on the Russian Federation. Actually, instead of lobbying for the introduction of sanctions for the Russian Rosatom, the Minister of Energy is lobbying for the purchase of their incomplete equipment. We are not even discussing the need to obtain permission from Rosatom for Bulgaria to transfer reactors to Ukraine. The question is even different. What about the approaching accession to the EU promised by the authorities? Or are we being misled again, or is this another mega-cut of billions of dollars and euros at facilities that will never be put into operation, since there is systemic opposition to the construction and operation of Russian reactors on the territory of the European Union? No one will joke about the issue of nuclear safety in Europe.
And what does the tariff increase have to do with the construction of new nuclear units?
Large energy facilities, primarily nuclear, are built using loans (80-90% of costs) and the current tariff has nothing to do with construction. Again a lie. The loans will be repaid later, in 10-15 years, when the blocks are built. Our children and grandchildren will repay the loans for 30 years or more after the start of operation of the new units. The cost of new nuclear units will be hidden in the tariffs of future years. And those who will run in search of loans today must guarantee the lender that those future rates will ensure the repayment of the loan and interest on it. Does anyone believe that there will be those who will believe our creators of the Energy Strategy 2050?
The next question is who will put Russian equipment in order and how? I spoke in detail about the absurdity and criminal danger of such projects of the Ministry of Energy earlier. But Galushchenko and Co. are not interested in the specialists’ position. Moreover, scientists and designers prevent them from falsifying design and estimate documentation, as well as “effectively” using billions, attributing the lack of results to the war.
Unfortunately, all this is far beyond the intellectual level and responsibility of those managing the country's energy sector. The country is on the verge of destruction of the design potential and scientific support of the industry. The top management has sunk to the level of Ostap Bender: “The West will help us!”
The leadership of the government and the Ministry of Energy apparently do not know that the key criterion for the self-sufficiency and independence of the country’s energy complex is the presence of powerful scientific and design institutions, the country’s ability to independently develop and build energy complexes. The scientific and design components are especially important for nuclear energy, where the lack of professional design and scientific support, even during operation and repair work, can lead to large-scale problems.
Russia has always tried to attract Ukrainian nuclear scientists to itself, creating for them the most attractive working conditions and remuneration. The Russian intelligence services, through their agents, did everything possible to compromise and stop the activities of our nuclear research centers, scientific and design institutes working in the energy sector.
In conditions of war and large-scale destruction of the country’s generating capacities, instead of preserving and supporting the unique scientific and design institutions necessary for energy restoration, the Ministry of Energy paralyzes their activities or simply destroys them, continuing to carry out the tasks of the Russian special services.
The Ukrainian Research and Design and Exploration Institute of Industrial Technology in the city of Zheltye Vody, the only state institution in Ukraine that was created for scientific and design support of the uranium industry, turned out to be not needed by the Ministry of Energy. According to the resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine No. 910-r dated October 14, 2022, initiated by Galushchenko, the institution was transferred to the State Property Fund. The result is that the Institute is in organizational collapse and has virtually ceased its activities. The workers, of whom there were 51 people left as of 06/10/24, are working online, since since the end of 2022 the Institute has been disconnected from electricity and water supply, which has led to a complete stop of work. Salaries were last paid in October 2022. The remaining specialists cannot even quit, since the institution has no management apparatus, accounting and personnel services for a long time.
State Enterprise “Kiev Institute of Engineering Surveys and Research “Energoproekt” specialized in carrying out research work on nuclear and thermal energy. This institution was also transferred to the State Property Fund. The result is a 10-fold reduction in staff, multimillion-dollar salary arrears, and virtual cessation of operations. True, the government stopped privatization and transferred the institute for resuscitation to... the SBU. The specialization of the SBU is far from research and design of nuclear power plants, so it is more logical that counterintelligence officers were simply interested in a huge room in the capital.
Kharkov Institute “Energoproekt” (KHIEP) carried out large-scale projects related to nuclear and thermal energy. As a general designer, the institute implemented projects for the construction of Zaporozhye and South Ukrainian nuclear power plants. During the Soviet era, the Kharkov Institute “Energoproekt” was an elite design and scientific-technical institution, but now it has become a shining example of the real priorities and “effective” management of the Ministry of Energy. HIEP does not actually work, it only makes minor adjustments to old documentation. Most of the specialists have been fired, and their competence in the integrated design of energy facilities has been lost.
Censor.net informed about a press conference by the leadership of the last operating Kyiv Research and Design Institute “Energoproekt” (KIEP) in Ukraine - an institution known far beyond the country’s borders, the main developer and implementer of projects in the field of nuclear, thermal and renewable energy . The leaders of the institute reported unprecedented pressure from officials of the Ministry of Energy, who are trying to block activities and destroy a unique scientific institution. In order to bring the institute to bankruptcy, the Ministry of Energy and Energoatom blocked payments under completed agreements and stopped new orders. By refusing to make electronic copies, they are trying to seize the institute’s invaluable archival design documentation collected over 90 (!!!) years of its work, which will inevitably lead to the cessation of KIEP’s activities.
To break the resistance of scientists and designers, officials of the Ministry of Energy do not neglect provocations and abuse of official position. Thus, the Institute, which is determined to be a critically important enterprise for the functioning of the energy sector and the life of the country, submitted a list of its employees to the Ministry of Energy for reservation. But instead of making a reservation, I received a summons from the Ministry to the TCC for all the workers on the list.
According to the chairman of the board of KIEP, Yuri Sapozhnikov, the leadership of the Ministry of Energy is trying to destroy the last scientific and design institution in the national energy complex, so that there are no independent examinations of adventurous projects, inflated estimates and large-scale corruption schemes. The situation is getting worse on the eve of receiving huge resources for the construction of the 3rd and 4th power units at the Khmelnytsky NPP. According to the head of the Institute, the Ministry of Energy and Energoatom need pocket pseudo-structures that will sign any conclusions for them.
The KIEP team is asking for help to stop the criminal arbitrariness of officials of the Ministry of Energy and to prevent the destruction of a unique institution working in the energy industry.
If you take the list of energy enterprises that are managed by the Ministry of Energy, it is difficult to find companies that are developing sustainably and have prospects for growth. From this we can draw disappointing conclusions regarding the prospects of the industry as such. Regular power outages, tariff increases, failure to prepare for the heating season, large-scale corruption - this is an incomplete list of “achievements of the current Ministry of Energy team.” In the conditions of the deliberate destruction of the energy infrastructure of Ukraine by the Russian Federation, the destruction of shunting capacities and the crisis state of the energy system, it is impossible to allow the remnants of domestic science to be eliminated.
There is no need to hope that the war will write off everything for everyone.
For more than two years now, the media space has been covered by information that the energy industry is run by an organized criminal group, headed by a former people’s deputy, who, moreover, is the head of the intelligence network of our enemy in Ukraine.
Those who are accused remain silent and do not go to the courts or the prosecutor's office. But the worst thing is that the country’s leaders are silent, the special services are silent. Is energy really controlled by enemy services through their proxies? Or everything is fine, all this is fiction - energy is in the hands of decent people devoted to Ukraine (well, they make mistakes, no matter what happens to them). Well, at least say something! Thousands of energy workers, devoted to their Motherland, are fighting for it, saving it at the cost of their health and life. Tell them, who is leading them?
What awaits the Ukrainian electric power industry? Will she survive and will Ukraine stand with her? The question today can only be this way. There is no other option. The games are over. And the last thing we need now is “beautiful” statements and appeals. We need action, we need a complete mobilization of strength and intelligence to save the situation. Is there such an understanding “at the top”? Or, as always, life will tell...
