Members of Ukrainian state grid operator's supervisory board get fired, seemingly due to political pressure

Daniel Dobbeni, the head of the supervisory board of Ukraine's state grid operator Ukrenergo, and Peder Anderson, a member of the board, have applied for early termination of powers amid the dismissal of Ukrenergo CEO Volodymyr Kudrytskyi.

Source: statement released by the press service of Ukraine's state grid operator Ukrenergo

Quote: "We believe that the decision about an early dismissal of the CEO of Ukrenergo is politically motivated and, according to the results of the report, there are no reasonable grounds for it."

They state that since the first days of work in Ukrenergo’s supervisory board they felt political pressure and observed the attempts to bypass fair competition and appoint people "whose professional qualities raised doubts" as top managers of the company.

"We regularly received reports from the management of the Company during the meetings about a negative impact of anonymous sources on social media on the Company’s reputation and the pressure put onto the employees by law enforcement," the statement says.

They think that the corporate management of Ukrenergo was called into question and they don’t see any possibility to keep working as part of the supervisory board.

"Violating the principles of corporate management and deciding to dismiss its head without providing proof of poor management is unacceptable and can affect the further cooperation between Ukrenergo with operators-members of ENTSO-E," they added.

Background:

• Volodymyr Kudrytskyi, the CEO of Ukrenergo, Ukraine's national power supply company, was dismissed from his post on the evening of 2 September.
• Representatives of international financial organisations had called for the potential dismissal of Kudrytskyi to be delayed until Ukrenergo’s supervisory board had been formed.
• The European-Ukrainian Energy agency urged Ukrenergo’s supervisory board and President Zelenskyy not to rush the decision about the dismissal of Kudrytskyi.

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