CEO of Ukraine's grid operator denies he was dismissed due to poor protection at power facilities

Volodymyr Kudrytskyi, CEO of Ukrenergo, Ukraine's electricity transmission system operator, has stated that his dismissal by the supervisory board of Ukrenergo is not connected with the poor protection of the substations owned by Ukrenergo.

Source: Kudrytskyi on Facebook

Details: He added that Oleksii Brekht, responsible for operation, restoration and development for high-voltage infrastructure in the company, had been appointed as acting CEO of Ukrenergo.

The decision to hold competition to choose the next CEO of the company was also made at the meeting of the supervisory board.

Kudrytskyi states that the emergency meeting of the supervisory board was initiated by him, as he was convinced that the issue of replacing the CEO of Ukrenergo should be handled exclusively by the supervisory board.

"Despite separate statements in the media, the decision made by the supervisory board concerning my dismissal has no connection to the issue of the level of protection of the Ukrenergo substations. I presented a detailed report regarding each facility to the members of the supervisory board. And the members of the board have no questions about it," Kudrytskyi said.

Kudrytskyi adds that over 60 anti-drone shelters have been built at Ukrenergo substations. No money from the state budget was spent on these shelters as the construction was fully funded by international partners.

"These shelters saved dozens of autotransformers this year. This does not mean that the power system would not be affected after being struck with several dozens of missiles. This means that we would be able to quickly resume its operation – in a few days," he noted.

In addition to this, lately, a discrediting campaign against Ukrenergo was initiated in anonymous Telegram channels and some media outlets.

"I asked the press service to gather these articles – there is an extensive catalogue of artificially spread, almost identical and unsubstantiated statements, directed at ruining our company’s image," Kudrytskyi said.

He added that his successor must be chosen through a transparent public competition and he was sure that the experience of Oleksii Brekht and the team of Ukrenergo would facilitate a proper preparation of the power system for winter.

Background:

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