Jamie Dettmer is opinion editor and a international affairs columnist at POLITICO Europe.
As Russia started its full-scale invasion of Ukraine practically 4 years in the past, Volodymyr Kudrytskyi, then head of Ukraine’s state-owned nationwide energy firm Ukrenergo, was scrambling to maintain the lights on.
By some means, he succeeded and continued to take action yearly, incomes the respect of power executives worldwide by making certain the nation was in a position to stand up to Russian missile and drone strikes on its energy grid and keep away from catastrophic blackouts — till he was abruptly compelled to resign in 2024, that’s.
Kudrytskyi’s dismissal was decried by many within the power trade and likewise prompted alarm in Brussels. On the time, Kudrytskyi instructed POLITICO he was the sufferer of the relentless centralization of authority that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and his highly effective head of workplace Andriy Yermak typically pursue. He mentioned he feared “corrupt people” would find yourself taking on the state-owned firm.
In response to his supporters, it’s that sort of speak — and his refusal to stay silent — that explains why Kudrytskyi ended up in a glass-enclosed cubicle in a downtown Kyiv courtroom final week, the place he was arraigned on embezzlement fees. Now, opposition lawmakers and civil society activists are up in arms, labeling this yet one more instance of Ukraine’s management utilizing lawfare to intimidate opponents and silence critics by accusing them of corruption or of collaboration with Russia. Zelenskyy’s workplace declined to remark.
Others who’ve acquired the identical remedy embrace Zelenskyy’s predecessor in workplace, Petro Poroshenko, who was sanctioned and arraigned on corruption fees this 12 months — a transfer that would stop him from standing in a future election. Sanctions have continuously been threatened or used in opposition to opponents, successfully freezing belongings and blocking the sanctioned particular person from conducting any monetary transactions, together with utilizing bank cards or accessing financial institution accounts.
Poroshenko has since accused Zelenskyy of creeping “authoritarianism,” and looking for to “take away any competitor from the political panorama.”
That will additionally clarify why Kudrytskyi has been arraigned, based on opposition lawmaker Mykola Knyazhitskiy, who believes using lawfare to discredit opponents is simply going to worsen because the presidential workplace prepares for a potential election subsequent 12 months within the occasion there’s a ceasefire. They’re utilizing the courts “to clear the sphere of rivals” to form a dishonest election, he fears.
Others, together with distinguished Ukrainian activist and head of the Anti-Corruption Motion Heart Daria Kaleniuk, argue the president and his coterie are utilizing the battle to monopolize energy to such a level that it threatens the nation’s democracy.
Kaleniuk was within the courtroom for Kudrytskyi’s two-hour arraignment, and echoes the previous power boss’s declare that the prosecution is “political.” In response to Kaleniuk, the case doesn’t make any authorized sense, and she or he mentioned all of it sounded “even stranger” because the prosecutor detailed the costs in opposition to Kudrytskyi: “He failed to indicate that he had materially benefited in any manner” from an infrastructure contract that, ultimately, wasn’t accomplished, she defined.
The case in query is expounded to a contract Kudrytskyi approved seven years in the past as Ukrenergo’s then-deputy director for investments. However the subcontractor didn’t even start work on the assigned infrastructure enhancements, and Ukrenergo was in a position to claw again an advance cost that was made.
Kaleniuk’s disquiet can be echoed by opposition lawmaker Inna Sovsun, who instructed POLITICO, “there’s no proof that [Kudrytskyi] enriched himself.”
“There was no injury finished. I can’t assist however assume that that is all politically motivated,” she mentioned.
Sovsun turned as much as the arraignment to supply herself as a bail guarantor if wanted — two different lawmakers supplied to behave as guarantors as nicely, however the decide as a substitute selected one other process to set Kudrytskyi free from pre-trial detention by requiring the cost of bail bond of $325,000.
One senior Ukrainian adviser, who requested to not be recognized so they might converse concerning the case, dismissed the protection’s description of the case in opposition to Kudrytskyi as being politically motivated and claiming there was no substance to the embezzlement allegations. “Folks ought to wait on this case till the complete listening to,” he added.
However for former Deputy Prime Minister Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze, the case “doesn’t look good from any angle — both domestically or on the subject of worldwide companions.” The timing, she mentioned, is unhelpful for Ukraine, because it coincides with Kyiv’s ongoing enchantment for extra European power help forward of what’s more likely to be the battle’s most perilous winter.
With Russia mounting missile and drone strikes on a far bigger scale than earlier than, Ukraine’s power problem is more likely to be much more formidable. And in contrast to earlier winters, Russia’s assaults have been focusing on Ukraine’s drilling, storage and distribution amenities for pure gasoline along with its electrical energy grid. Sixty p.c of Ukrainians at present depend on pure gasoline to maintain their houses heat.
Some Ukrainian power executives additionally concern Kudrytskyi’s prosecution could also be a part of a preemptive scapegoating tactic to shift blame within the occasion that the nation’s power system can now not stand up to Russian assaults.
Citing unnamed sources, two weeks in the past Ukrainian media outlet Ukrainska Pravda reported that former power executives concern they’re being lined as much as be faulted for failing to do sufficient to spice up the power infrastructure’s resilience and harden amenities.
“They want a scapegoat now,” a international coverage professional who has endorsed the Ukrainian authorities instructed POLITICO. “There are components of Ukraine that in all probability gained’t have any electrical energy till the spring. It’s already 10 levels Celsius in Kyiv flats now, and the town might nicely have prolonged blackouts. Persons are already pissed off about this, so the president’s workplace wants scapegoats,” he mentioned, talking on situation of anonymity to debate the matter freely.
“The opposition goes to accuse Zelenskyy of failing Ukraine, and argue he ought to have already had contingencies to forestall extended blackouts or a giant freeze, they are going to argue,” he added.
Senior fellow on the Atlantic Council and writer of “Battleground Ukraine” Adrian Karatnycky additionally worries concerning the path of political journey. “Whereas he’s an inspirational and courageous wartime chief, there are, certainly, worrying parts to Zelenskyy’s rule,” he mentioned.