Lawmakers argue buying aging atomic energy equipment from Bulgaria won’t help keep the lights on and could fuel corruption.
Ukraine's government is facing accusations that officials are opening the door to corruption. | Valentina Petrova/AFP via Getty Images
August 15, 2024
POLITICO EU
Ukraine's government is fighting off growing opposition to a multimillion-dollar scheme to buy mothballed nuclear reactors, facing accusations that officials are opening the door to corruption just as they push to clean up the country’s energy sector.
The government wants to bring two new units online at the Khmelnytskyi Nuclear Power Station in Western Ukraine, arguing they will help shore up the country's energy grid that Russian bombs have decimated. The quickest and fastest way to do so, they argue, is to buy Russian-made reactors currently sitting in storage in Bulgaria at an estimated cost of $600 million.
But the deal needs lawmakers’ sign-off, and several parliamentarians — including at least one from President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s own party — are alleging the deal could blow a massive hole in the country's tattered budget for outdated technology that won't necessarily help Ukrainians stave off looming blackouts.
The issue came to a head Tuesday morning when government officials met with members of parliament to discuss the issue. According to two lawmakers present, the government acknowledged it didn't currently have the necessary backing amid swirling doubts.
“It’s extremely rare for things on such a high level not to be supported,” said Andrii Zhupanyn, an MP from Zelenskyy’s governing party and a member of the parliament’s energy committee.
He rattled through several questions he said remained unanswered: “Can we afford to be buying Russian nuclear reactors during the full-scale invasion? And what is the condition of these reactors? They were bought by Bulgaria 10-12 years ago, so will they work when they arrive in Ukraine?”
However, Ukraine’s energy minister, German Galuschenko, who is pushing the plan, dismissed the concerns, arguing that expanding nuclear power is the only way to keep the beleaguered energy grid operating, and that the two VVER-1000 reactors are the fastest and cheapest options available.
“Against Russian attacks, nuclear energy [accounts for] 60 percent of our energy mix and is a backbone of our energy system,” he said in comments to POLITICO. “The development and adding more units to Khmelnytskyi Nuclear Power Station is a priority for the government of Ukraine.”
Ukraine's government is fighting off growing opposition to a multimillion-dollar scheme to buy mothballed nuclear reactors, facing accusations that officials are opening the door to corruption just as they push to clean up the country’s energy sector.
The government wants to bring two new units online at the Khmelnytskyi Nuclear Power Station in Western Ukraine, arguing they will help shore up the country's energy grid that Russian bombs have decimated. The quickest and fastest way to do so, they argue, is to buy Russian-made reactors currently sitting in storage in Bulgaria at an estimated cost of $600 million.
But the deal needs lawmakers’ sign-off, and several parliamentarians — including at least one from President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s own party — are alleging the deal could blow a massive hole in the country's tattered budget for outdated technology that won't necessarily help Ukrainians stave off looming blackouts.
The issue came to a head Tuesday morning when government officials met with members of parliament to discuss the issue. According to two lawmakers present, the government acknowledged it didn't currently have the necessary backing amid swirling doubts.
“It’s extremely rare for things on such a high level not to be supported,” said Andrii Zhupanyn, an MP from Zelenskyy’s governing party and a member of the parliament’s energy committee.
He rattled through several questions he said remained unanswered: “Can we afford to be buying Russian nuclear reactors during the full-scale invasion? And what is the condition of these reactors? They were bought by Bulgaria 10-12 years ago, so will they work when they arrive in Ukraine?”
However, Ukraine’s energy minister, German Galuschenko, who is pushing the plan, dismissed the concerns, arguing that expanding nuclear power is the only way to keep the beleaguered energy grid operating, and that the two VVER-1000 reactors are the fastest and cheapest options available.
“Against Russian attacks, nuclear energy [accounts for] 60 percent of our energy mix and is a backbone of our energy system,” he said in comments to POLITICO. “The development and adding more units to Khmelnytskyi Nuclear Power Station is a priority for the government of Ukraine.”
Needing nuclear
The row has created another point of contention as Ukraine tries to crack down on corruption in its energy sector. Earlier this week, Galushenko’s deputy minister, Oleksandr Kheil, was arrested over allegations he pushed for a bribe of half a million dollars in exchange for transferring coal mining equipment belonging to a state enterprise.
Zhupanyn and his colleagues claim the Russian nuclear reactor purchase will become another venue for such dodgy dealing.
“In the last 10 years, there have been many criminal cases against people using tenders to extract cash from Ukraine’s state nuclear power company,” he said in an interview. “If you allow them to spend billions of hryvnia on this, you can expect a pipeline of criminal cases in the next 10 years.”
Galuschenko denied accusations the government was withholding information.
The government wants to bring two new units online at the Khmelnytskyi Nuclear Power Station in Western Ukraine, arguing they will help shore up the country's energy grid that Russian bombs have decimated. | Sergei Supinsky/AFP via Getty Images
“The very fact the law is in [parliament] and we discuss its provisions with MPs and society is a clear sign of our openness,” he added. “All speculations on ‘transparency’ are manipulations by the forces and circles that are not interested in the development of the Ukrainian nuclear state sector.”
Yet parliamentarians are still claiming the government has failed to answer key questions on how the scheme provides value for money or addresses the challenges of the beleaguered energy grid. And Yaroslav Zheleznyak, an economist and MP from Ukraine’s liberal Holos party, said he wasn’t confident the government could appease those concerns.
“There are a lot of MPs from basically all factions that are not supporting it,” he told POLITICO following the meeting on Tuesday. “We are concerned about corruption in this procurement process and we have not received any explanations.”
Bulgaria's energy sector is facing its own corruption scandals — on Tuesday, investigators raided the offices of its state-owned gas network operator in a probe over alleged misuse of EU cash. Supporters of a far-right, pro-Russian political party in the country in May blocked access to one of the country's nuclear power plants for a delegation from Kyiv, which intended to inspect equipment it plans to buy for its own atomic energy sector.
Ukrainian energy and environment NGO Ekodiya has also raised concerns about the proposals for Khmelnytskyi, arguing that the project would rely on “obsolete Russian-made equipment” and that “the use of outdated technology can lead to serious safety and efficiency problems.”
Instead, the group argues, the better investment would be in smaller electricity-generating facilities, including renewables, distributed across a wider area. Volodymyr Kudrytskyi, the chief executive of state power firm Ukrenergo, told POLITICO earlier this year that building a broad green energy network would make the grid less susceptible to Russian attacks.
Moscow has stepped up missile and drone strikes on key infrastructure in recent months, crippling the electricity system and leaving Ukraine dependent on imports from the EU. Analysts warn that, without concerted efforts to bring additional capacity online and ensure critical sites are protected with anti-air missiles, the country could face a power crisis this winter.
A fire at the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant in Russian-occupied southern Ukraine over the weekend triggered fears of a disaster at the site, close to the front lines. The International Atomic Energy Agency has repeatedly warned that the power station, seized by Moscow in the early days of the full-scale war, is being operated in unsafe conditions.
“The very fact the law is in [parliament] and we discuss its provisions with MPs and society is a clear sign of our openness,” he added. “All speculations on ‘transparency’ are manipulations by the forces and circles that are not interested in the development of the Ukrainian nuclear state sector.”
Yet parliamentarians are still claiming the government has failed to answer key questions on how the scheme provides value for money or addresses the challenges of the beleaguered energy grid. And Yaroslav Zheleznyak, an economist and MP from Ukraine’s liberal Holos party, said he wasn’t confident the government could appease those concerns.
“There are a lot of MPs from basically all factions that are not supporting it,” he told POLITICO following the meeting on Tuesday. “We are concerned about corruption in this procurement process and we have not received any explanations.”
Bulgaria's energy sector is facing its own corruption scandals — on Tuesday, investigators raided the offices of its state-owned gas network operator in a probe over alleged misuse of EU cash. Supporters of a far-right, pro-Russian political party in the country in May blocked access to one of the country's nuclear power plants for a delegation from Kyiv, which intended to inspect equipment it plans to buy for its own atomic energy sector.
Ukrainian energy and environment NGO Ekodiya has also raised concerns about the proposals for Khmelnytskyi, arguing that the project would rely on “obsolete Russian-made equipment” and that “the use of outdated technology can lead to serious safety and efficiency problems.”
Instead, the group argues, the better investment would be in smaller electricity-generating facilities, including renewables, distributed across a wider area. Volodymyr Kudrytskyi, the chief executive of state power firm Ukrenergo, told POLITICO earlier this year that building a broad green energy network would make the grid less susceptible to Russian attacks.
Moscow has stepped up missile and drone strikes on key infrastructure in recent months, crippling the electricity system and leaving Ukraine dependent on imports from the EU. Analysts warn that, without concerted efforts to bring additional capacity online and ensure critical sites are protected with anti-air missiles, the country could face a power crisis this winter.
A fire at the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant in Russian-occupied southern Ukraine over the weekend triggered fears of a disaster at the site, close to the front lines. The International Atomic Energy Agency has repeatedly warned that the power station, seized by Moscow in the early days of the full-scale war, is being operated in unsafe conditions.
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