On the eve of the heating season, a key Ukrainian company crucial for its successful completion was almost left headless. This happened as a result of a protracted conflict between the state owner of the transmission system operator NEC Ukrenergo, in the person of the Ministry of Energy, and, on the other hand, foreign members of the Supervisory Board (SB) selected through a competition, who have a majority on it.

The culmination of the confrontation was the dismissal by the Supervisory Board of almost the entire company's management, headed by the newly elected chairman Vitaliy Zaychenko. The Ministry of Energy very quickly blocked this decision through the court, and simultaneously all further work of the Supervisory Board. The ministry ordered that all meetings be held in Kyiv.

The uncertainty about who should now manage Ukrenergo and whether the legal dispute would develop further lasted for several days, until the parties reached a settlement on Thursday, October 2.

The Ministry of Energy abolished the requirement for supervisory board members to meet in Kyiv, the board restored the previous composition of the management board, but was able to add a sixth member – the Chief Risk Officer.

Without this compromise, the state-owned company, which has been in technical default since 2024, risked becoming even more deeply entrenched in the financial crisis. However, whether it will resolve the crisis and prevent a recurrence of the conflict in the future is an open question, according to Volodymyr Omelychenko, director of energy programs at the Razumkov Center. More details about the conflict and its background are in the article LIGA.net

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