Ukraine detained its former energy chief, Volodymyr Kudrytskyi, on 28 October, fourteen months after Western board members quit Ukrenergo in protest, calling his dismissal “politically motivated.” The charges stem from a 2018 contractor dispute where court documents show the state recovered all funds and suffered no losses.
The detention follows a troubling pattern. Ukraine has targeted the National Anti-Corruption Bureau, pursued anti-corruption leader Vitalyi Shabunin on questionable charges, and stripped citizenship to remove Odesa’s corrupt but elected mayor—all moves critics say silence government opponents.
Between 2020 and 2024, Kudrytskyi secured $1.5 billion for Ukrenergo from Western partners—triple what Ukraine’s entire Energy Ministry obtained.
The Western board members who helped him get that funding—Daniel Dobbeni and Peder Andreasen—quit when he was fired. Now he’s in detention.
His real offense? Publicly blaming Energy Minister Herman Halushchenko for failing to protect infrastructure from Russian strikes.
Judge Kristina Konstantinova, who has a record of targeting pro-Ukrainian activists, set bail at 13 million hryvnia ($309,000) on 29 October despite prosecutors providing no evidence that Kudrytskyi benefited personally.
The math doesn’t add up
The charges stem from a 2018 contractor dispute in which Ukrenergo sued to recover advance payments—and won. Court documents show the state lost nothing.
Court documents reviewed by investigative journalist Tetiana Nikolaienko show what happened when contractor LLC “Vizyn Rich” failed to complete substation fence work in 2018-2019:
- Ukrenergo filed formal objections to substandard work.
- Ukrenergo sued in the commercial court.
- Ukrenergo recovered 4.8 million hryvnia ($114,000) in advance payments.
- Ukrenergo collected 8 million hryvnia ($190,000) in bank guarantees.
“The state suffered no losses. This is confirmed by court decisions,” Nikolaienko wrote. The actual mistake? A Concordia Bank employee issued guarantees to an unreliable contractor—a due diligence failure by the bank, not fraud by Kudrytskyi.
Anti-corruption lawyer Daria Kaleniuk attended the 29 October hearing. As she writes on Facebook, prosecutors presented no evidence connecting Kudrytskyi to the contractor.
No evidence of personal financial gain. Just testimony from that bank employee claiming Kudrytskyi intended to seize guarantee funds—despite Ukrenergo’s documented legal battle to recover the money.
Who is Judge Konstantinova?
Lawyer Mykhailo Zhernakov detailed her record, which reveals a pattern of siding with the government against activists:
She authorized unlawful searches of Euromaidan activists in 2013-2014, allowing pro-Russian President Yanukovych to crack down on the leaders of the democratic protests.
In 2021, she ordered house arrest for activists who protested at the Presidential Office supporting imprisoned activist Serhiy Sternenko.
In 2021, months before Russia's full-scale invasion, Konstantinova’s daughter posted Instagram videos justifying Crimea’s annexation, calling Ukrainians cattle, and using the phrase “Ukrainian shit.”
“Our judicial system is still, to a large extent, a genuine, undisguised, hostile agency. A branch of the FSB in the very heart of the capital,” Zhernakov wrote on Facebook.
What Kudrytskyi actually did
Between 2020 and 2024, Ukrenergo under Kudrytskyi secured $1.5 billion in Western grants and loans, of which $500 million came from the Ukrainian Ministry of Energy.
Energy analyst Volodymyr Omelchenko told the BBC that Kudrytsktyi synchronized Ukraine’s power grid with Europe in March 2022 during active combat. Using international funds, he built over 60 drone shelters at substations—more protective structures than all other Ukrainian energy companies combined.
Kudrytskyi’s big mistake was that he started criticizing infrastructure protection failures.
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The result was foreseeable. As Kaleniuk explains it: “Instead of punishing saboteur [Energy Minister] Halushchenko, who failed to prepare facilities, they decided to shut up Kudrytskyi, who understands energy and knows who really did what to protect against strikes.”
Western partners noticed. When authorities fired him in September 2024, foreign board members quit in protest. Fourteen months later, he’s in detention over recovered funds from six years ago.
The 2018 allegations
The State Bureau of Investigation detained Kudrytskyi on 28 October. The charges date to 2018, when he was deputy director for investments—a role he left in November 2020.
Prosecutors claim 68 million hryvnia ($1.62 million) in fence reconstruction contracts involved 13.7 million hryvnia ($326,000) in embezzled advance payments. Kudrytskyi faces charges alongside businessman Ihor Hrynkevych, who separately faces charges for supplying 1 billion hryvnia ($23.8 million) in substandard military clothing.
After the 21 October raids, Kudrytskyi told The Kyiv Independent the real purpose was accessing his phone and messages.
In court, he was blunt: “For me it’s obvious this wasn’t routine investigative work—someone from above requested these actions be conducted this way,” according to the BBC.
The charges carry up to 12 years in prison and asset confiscation. Two MPs—Inna Sovsan and Roman Hlapuk—offered to guarantee Kudrytskyi’s appearance for trial and not flee personally. The court rejected the alternative to detention.
The institutional warfare
Throughout October, NABU and the Prosecutor General’s Office went after each other’s officials. NABU exposed a Prosecutor General’s Office prosecutor trying to bribe High Anti-Corruption Court judges with $3.5 million. The Prosecutor General’s Office simultaneously investigated five NABU employees for alleged corruption.
Political analysts Volodymyr Tsybulko and Serhii Fursa told BBC that Kudrytskyi’s case looks like scapegoating for infrastructure failures, political persecution through “petty revenge,” or both.
In the same article, MP Mykola Kniazhytskyi called for using Kudrytskyi’s expertise and international connections during a wartime energy crisis rather than prosecuting him.
"Persecution of government critics through transparently fabricated criminal cases is already a trend," Kaleniuk wrote on Facebook. "It's reversing Ukraine's path toward Europe and pulling us back toward Russian-style governance."
What Brussels sees
Earlier this year, the European Commission threatened to withhold billions after Ukraine tried to subordinate anti-corruption agencies to the Prosecutor General. Mass protests forced a reversal within a week.
Now Western donors watch a judge whose daughter praised Crimea’s annexation jail the official who secured more energy funding than Ukraine’s own ministry—over money the state recovered—while foreign board members who quit in protest watch from abroad.
Two questions remain: Will Western partners react, or will they watch? And does Ukraine need its people in the streets again to protect reform?
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