The influence of the deputy head of the OP Rostislav Shurma on the government of Ukraine allowed the occupied solar stations of his brother and business partners to receive 324 million UAH for electricity that they did not supply.
In early August, BusinessCensor, citing data from MP Andrey Zhupanin, reported the payment of UAH 367 million for electricity produced by solar power plants in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine.
Since July 2022, these solar power plants have not been synchronized with the power grid of the unoccupied part of Ukraine, and accordingly, no electricity has been supplied.
The disconnection of power grids between the occupied and unoccupied territories of Ukraine occurred a year ago. That is, SPPs in the occupied part have not been supplying electricity to the United Energy System of Ukraine (UPS) for a year now.
At the same time, some SES continued to receive money until July 2023.
That is, SES in the occupied territories could produce and supply electricity for the needs of the occupiers, or not produce it at all, but received money for it.
The State Enterprise “Guaranteed Buyer” (GarPok) pays for the electricity produced at the “green tariff”.
The State Enterprise “Guaranteed Buyer” explained the payment of SES in the occupied territory as follows:
GarPok receives data on the volume of electricity produced from renewable energy sources from the system operator NEC Ukrenergo. At the same time, Ukrenergo receives this data from distribution system operators (oblenergo), which is transmitted to them by the solar power plants and wind farms themselves.
Thus, from the explanations of the “Guaranteed Buyer” it follows that the SES, which are located in the occupied territories, transferred information about the volume of electricity generation to “Zaporozhyeoblenergo” and “Khersonoblenergo”.
Despite the fact that the oblenergo was not able to verify the information received from the SES on the volume of electricity production and supply to its energy system in Ukraine, it transferred it to Ukrenergo.
The system operator, in turn, sent this data to the State Enterprise “Guaranteed Buyer” and he made payments for electricity from the occupied solar power plants.
The payment was made on the basis of an explanation from the Ministry for the Reintegration of Temporarily Occupied Territories of Ukraine, which GarPok received at the beginning of 2023.
It said that there are no restrictions on paying for electricity from solar power plants and wind farms in the occupied territories.
Such a restriction should have been a decision of the Cabinet of Ministers, but Prime Minister Denis Shmygal did not initiate a ban on payments.
It turns out that all participants in the process understood that payments were being made for electricity that was produced by the occupied solar power plants and was not supplied to the Ukrainian energy grid, but did not stop the transactions.
Only in July, the National Commission that carries out state regulation in the fields of energy and utilities (NCREKU) decided that funds for electricity at the feed-in tariff will be paid on the basis of information verified by Ukrenergo confirming the operation of the relevant electrical installations in the UES of Ukraine.
Who got the money
According to the State Enterprise “Guaranteed Buyer”, there are 66 producers of electricity from renewable sources in the occupied part of the Zaporozhye and Kherson regions. Of these, 44 power plants received a green tariff. All the rest either stopped generation or were destroyed during the fighting.
From the Bihus.Info investigation it became known that almost the entire amount, namely UAH 324 million, from July 2022 to July 2023 was received from the Guaranteed Buyer State Enterprise by solar power plants that are associated with the Deputy Chairman of the Presidential Office Rostislam Shurma.
At the same time, the stations stopped supplying electricity to the UES of Ukraine in the summer of 2022.
These are solar power plants located in the Zaporizhzhya region: LLC "KD Energy 2", LLC "Renewable Energy Zaporozhye", PE "Natsprod", LLC "Green Energy Tokmak" and LLC "Grandpower LLC".
In response to a request from journalists, Zaporozhyeoblenergo reported that it is not able to verify the accuracy of data on the volume of electricity produced by solar stations located in the occupied territories.
The co-owner of KD Energy 2 LLC and Renewable Energy Zaporozhye LLC is Rostislav Shurma’s brother Oleg Shurma. The emergency station “Natsprod” is also mentioned among the implemented projects on the corporate website, where the “green” projects of Oleg Shurma and partners are collected.
Shurma’s brother’s partner in these stations is Sergei Dyadechko, a banker and ex-vice president of the bankrupt Rodovid-Bank.
The co-owner of Green Energy Tokmak LLC and Grandpower LLC is Ruslan Bozhko, a close person to Rostislav Shurma.
Shurma worked with Bozhko at Zaporizhstal (Metinvest Rinat Akhmetov). The first was the general director, the second was the financial director.
After Bozhko was fired from Zaporizhstal, he went into business, in particular building solar stations in the Zaporozhye region. At the same time, Shurma's brother became his partner in these projects.
A number of other manufacturers also received payment under the “green tariff” during the occupation. For example, SES of the companies “Skifia-Solar-1” and “Skifia-Solar-2” of businessman Vasily Khmelnitsky and partners, as well as a number of other, lesser-known manufacturers.
How Shurma replaced the Government
The Ministry of Energy of Ukraine owns a controlling stake in Zaporozhyeoblenergo. It was this company that transmitted unverified information to Ukrenergo about the volumes of electricity produced and supplied to the UES of Ukraine by solar stations in the occupied territories.
The ministry is headed by German Galushchenko, who coordinates his actions not with Prime Minister Denis Shmygal, but with Deputy Chairman of the OP Rostislav Shurma.
In fact, Shurma is an unofficial, but more important than Shmygal, leader of Galushchenko.
Who is Rostislav Shurma
The son of the “regional” and deputy from the “Opposition Bloc” Igor Shurma, Rostislav Shurma received an economic education at the Kiev-Mohyla Academy (bachelor) and at the Kiev Hetman University of Economics (master). In 2011-2012 studied at the Moscow School of Management "Skolkovo".
From 2006 to 2019, he worked in the structures of the Metinvest group in various leadership positions, including heading Zaporizhstal from 2012.
In parallel with his work for Akhmetov’s structures, Shurma participated in regional politics from the Party of Regions and the Opposition Bloc: In 2010, he was elected as a deputy of the Donetsk Regional Council from the Party of Regions; In 2015, he was appointed head of the Zaporozhye regional party organization of the “Opposition Bloc”; In 2019, he ran for the Verkhovna Rada from the Opposition Bloc party.
After the defeat of the Opposition Bloc in the elections, Shurma was fired by the management of Metinvest Akhmetov from Zaporizhstal.
After that, he found a way out to the new government and became a freelance adviser to the head of the OP Andrei Ermak.
In 2021, he was appointed a member of the supervisory board of Ukroboronprom, and then deputy head of the Ermak Office.
In the OP Shurma is responsible for economic policy
The President's Office made Shurma the head of not only Energy Minister Galushchenko.
Today he has actually taken over the functions of Prime Minister Denis Shmygal. Officials unofficially say that without Shurma’s approval, the government does not make important decisions.
However, he has significantly more influence than the head of the Cabinet of Ministers, because he has direct control over the heads of a number of important regulators and strategic state-owned enterprises.
In May 2023, BusinessCensor published a text about how Shurma replaced the economic bloc of the government and took control of the work of the Minister of Energy, NEURKU, Energoatom, State Property Fund, GTS Operator, Ukrnafta, Motor Sich, Forests of Ukraine , “Printing Plant of Ukraine” and a dozen more state-owned enterprises.
