Western nuclear executives will now oversee the company that generates half of Ukraine’s electricity. Ukraine’s government on 28 January appointed a new supervisory board for Energoatom, installing international heavyweights to rebuild governance after November’s corruption scandal implicated President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s former business partner.
In 2023, Velshi took a night train from Poland into wartime Ukraine, through air raid alerts, to sign a cooperation agreement.
The four independent board members include Patrick Fragman, former president and CEO of Westinghouse Electric Company—the world’s largest nuclear technology firm—and Rumina Velshi, who led Canada’s nuclear regulator and chaired the International Atomic Energy Agency’s Commission on Safety Standards.
In 2023, Velshi took a night train from Poland into wartime Ukraine, traveling through active air raid alerts to sign a cooperation agreement with the country’s nuclear safety agency.
Three Ukrainian government representatives round out the seven-member board.
Brice Bohuon, who until recently served on the executive committee of France’s state-owned EDF and previously led France’s Energy Regulation Commission, and Lithuanian audit specialist Laura Garbenčiūtė-Bakienė, who worked on risk management at the Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant and held senior positions at PwC across the United States, Ukraine, and Lithuania, complete the independent quartet.
Three Ukrainian government representatives round out the seven-member board: Deputy Economy Minister Vitaliy Kindratiev, State Agency for Restoration head Serhiy Sukhomlin, and Energy Ministry State Secretary Maksym Malashkin.
The selection involved EU, EBRD, IFC, and Business Ombudsman representatives, Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko stated.
First task: full audit
Svyrydenko tasked the new board with urgently appointing new company management and conducting “a full analysis of the company’s previous activities: contracts, procurement, and electricity sales auctions, taking into account information from law enforcement, media, and MPs.”
That audit will include commercial arrangements now under scrutiny. D.Trading—part of oligarch Rinat Akhmetov’s energy group DTEK—has already asked to terminate an electricity purchasing contract with Energoatom and has returned 164 million hryvnias (~$3.8 million) as “voluntary compensation,” Ekonomichna Pravda reported.
The trigger
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The appointments follow the November 2025 “Operation Midas” investigation, which exposed a kickback scheme where contractors paid 10-15% of contract values to avoid blocked payments. Investigators identified businessman Tymur Mindich—Zelenskyy’s former comedy studio partner—as a key figure. Mindich fled Ukraine hours before NABU detectives arrived and remains in Israel.
The alleged theft occurred as Ukrainians endured 12-hour blackouts from Russian strikes on energy infrastructure.
Parliament dismissed Justice Minister Herman Halushchenko and Energy Minister Svitlana Hrynchuk on 19 November. Zelenskyy sanctioned Mindich. The government dissolved the previous supervisory board on 11 November.
The alleged theft occurred as Ukrainians endured 12-hour blackouts from Russian strikes on energy infrastructure. For comparison, the $100 million NABU alleges was stolen could have purchased 27 Patriot missiles or 40,000 interceptor drones.
