Artem Nekrasov temporarily headed the Ministry of Energy of Ukraine

First Deputy Minister of Energy Artem Nekrasov will temporarily act as the head of the department.

The government made the corresponding decision at a meeting today, the Ministry of Energy reports.

"I realize the full weight of responsibility to the country and the industry. We have entered the active phase of the most difficult heating season in the history of Ukraine. Therefore, among the urgent tasks are stable operation of the energy system, transparency of processes, restoration of trust and effective cooperation with international partners, attraction of resources for repairs and restoration of damaged energy facilities," the department quotes him as saying.

• On November 19, the Verkhovna Rada voted to dismiss Herman Halushchenko from the post of Minister of Justice of Ukraine, as well as Svitlana Hrynchuk from the post of Minister of Energy. They are included in the NABU investigation into corruption in the energy sector.

Political crisis and corruption investigation in the energy sector

On November 10 and 11, NABU released four parts of the wiretap audio recordings and reported a large-scale "Midas" operation to expose corruption in the energy sector.

According to the bureau, “Energoatom” counterparties were forced to pay kickbacks in order to avoid blocking payments for services and products supplied or losing their supplier status. This practice was called "barrier".

According to NABU, members of the organization systematically received 10-15% as a bribe from “Energoatom” counterparties. Using this scheme, they legalized approximately $100 million through an office owned by the family of former MP and current senator of the Russian Federation Andriy Derkach.

Five people were detained in this case, and seven were declared suspects. Their names were later announced by the SAPO prosecutor at court hearings:

• businessman Tymur Mindich, who appeared in NABU records as "Carlson" and is considered the organizer of the scheme;
• former advisor to the Minister of Energy Ihor Myronyuk (“Rocket”);
• Executive Director for Physical Protection and Security of JSC NNEGC “Energoatom” Dmytro Basov (“Tenor”);
• four "employees" of the back office for money laundering: Oleksandr Zukerman ("Sugarman"), Ihor Fursenko ("Ryoshik"), Lesya Ustymenko and Lyudmila Zorina.

Myronyuk, Basov, Zorina, Fursenko, and Ustymenko have already been sent to custody, and sanctions have been imposed against Mindich and Zukerman. Subsequently, a total of 37 million hryvnias in bail was paid for Zorina and Ustymenko.

The NABU recordings also show the Minister of Energy, who at the time was Herman Halushchenko. He was searched in the case, and on November 12 he was removed from his post as Minister of Justice.

The SAPO prosecutor claimed that one of the defendants in the case interviewed Svitlana Hrynchuk, who later replaced Halushchenko as Minister of Energy.

Both ministers resigned. Zelensky removed them from the National Security and Defense Council.

NABU also claims that the participants in the scheme transferred money to former Deputy Prime Minister Oleksiy Chernyshov, who has already been suspected of illegal enrichment and sent to custody.

President Zelensky and Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko reported an audit of the largest state-owned companies and a large-scale "reset" in energy management.

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