By arresting Kudrytskyi, government threw wrench into negotiation process with Europeans - Nikolov
By bringing charges against former "Ukrenergo" head Volodymyr Kudrytskyi, the government has only made the negotiation process with European partners worse.
This was stated by journalist Yurii Nikolov, according to an article on Censor.NET.
"I think that by punishing one person, the party of corrupt officials is trying to scare all other anti-corruption activists. Just as in the NABU case, the SSU arrested two detectives on trumped-up charges, so here too: they are targeting Kudrytskyi to scare all his other supporters who still work at the state-owned company 'Ukrenergo'," he said.
According to Nikolov, for Europeans, the story with Kudrytskyi has become another marker.
"Our government has brought another headache upon itself, which it will have to constantly overcome by persuading Europeans to maintain funding in Ukraine at least at the current level. Right now, all of Europe is thinking about where we can find money; we are trying to dig out 150 billion euros of Russian money that has been seized and frozen there.
All this is part of the negotiation process. And now Zelenskyy and Halushchenko have thrown a boulder into this negotiation process. They are saying, 'We have such chaos here, so will you European donors of democracy give us more money?'"
Read more in the article on Censor.NET at the link.
Kudrytskyi's case
As a reminder, on the morning of October 21, officers of the State Bureau of Investigation (SBI) searched the home of former Ukrenergo head Volodymyr Kudrytskyi.
According to media reports, investigators are examining possible overstatements of logging volumes and contractor costs during the construction of power transmission lines.
On October 28, the SBI detained former "Ukrenergo" CEO Volodymyr Kudrytskyi on suspicion of fraudulently embezzling funds from the state enterprise NEC Ukrenergo.
The case concerns the alleged embezzlement of state company funds during tenders for the reconstruction of power system facilities back in 2018. Businessman Ihor Hrynkevych, who is currently in pre-trial detention, has already been notified of suspicion in the same case
On October 29, 2025, Kudrytskyi was taken into custody with the option of posting ₴13.7 million bail.
On 30 October, bail was posted for Kudrytskyi and he was released from pre-trial detention.
What does the investigation say?
According to the SBI, Hrynkevych organized a fraudulent scheme to embezzle funds from NEC "Ukrenergo" during tenders for the reconstruction of external fencing at substations in the Southern and Western power systems.
At that time, Kudrytskyi held the position of deputy director for investments at Ukrenergo and allegedly conspired with representatives of a private company that participated in the procurement.
"As a result of the tenders, two contracts were signed between the parties for a total amount exceeding UAH 68 million. The state enterprise then transferred more than UAH 13.7 million in advance payments to the contractor, which the perpetrators misappropriated without any intention of fulfilling their contractual obligations," the statement said.
