Zelensky replaces head of Ukraine’s electricity operator for failure to prevent Russian attacks

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has dismissed the head of state-owned electricity operator Ukrenergo over his failure to adequately protect the country’s national grid from a spate of recent Russian attacks, the Ukrainian edition of Forbes reported.

Volodymyr Kudrytskyi’s sacking came after widespread disruptions to Ukrainian electricity supplies were experienced nationwide in the aftermath of massive Russian airstrikes across the country on 26 August.

According to Forbes, the president’s office had asked Kudrytskyi to resign, but was forced to convene the company’s supervisory board when he refused.

“Their making that decision means you can forget about any notion of supervisory board independence at Ukrainian state-owned companies,” Oleksandr Kharchenko, director of the Ukrainian Energy Industry Research Center, told Forbes.

The Ukrenergo supervisory board voted to dismiss Kudrytskyi by a majority of four votes to two, according to Ukrainian public broadcaster Suspilne. Oleksiy Brecht, the deputy chairperson of the management board, will replace Kudrytskyi in a temporary capacity until a new chairperson can be appointed.

While Kudrytskyi, who has run Ukrenergo since 2020, has a contract that doesn’t expire until August 2025, he will now leave office on Wednesday, Forbes said.

Ukrenergo supervisory board member Yuriy Boyko told Forbes that all key Ukrainian energy facilities had been protected by gabions — the first layer of protection — for more than a year as of August 2024, while the second layer — concrete sarcophagi — was still being built.