Herman Halushchenko, then Energy Minister of Ukraine, attends a hearing by the European Parliament Committee on Industry, Research and Energy in Brussels, Belgium, 27 March 2023. EPA/OLIVIER HOSLET
Ukrainian Justice Minister Herman Halushchenko and Energy Minister Svitlana Hrynchuk stepped down from their posts on Wednesday after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called on them to resign amid a major corruption scandal in the country’s energy sector, Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko has announced.
Svyrydenko added that Halushchenko and Hrynchuk had submitted their resignations, which she said she had sent to the country’s parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, for approval.
The resignations came after Ukraine’s National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) on Monday accused several individuals, including high-level officials, of organising a scheme that saw them receive around $100 million (€86 million) in kickbacks from contracts signed by Ukraine’s state nuclear energy enterprise, Energoatom.
According to investigators, the scheme was masterminded by businessman Timur Mindich, a close associate of Zelensky and co-owner of the Kvartal 95 production company founded by Zelensky before he became president.
Others implicated alongside Mindich, who reportedly fled Ukraine for Israel shortly before a NABU search of his home on Monday and was sanctioned by Zelensky on Thursday, include Halushchenko and former Deputy Prime Minister Oleksiy Chernyshov, the bureau said.
On Tuesday, Svyrydenko announced the dismissal of Energoatom’s supervisory board and said an “urgent” audit of the company would be conducted following the allegations.
A day later, Halushchenko — who served as energy minister until his replacement by Hrynchuk earlier this year — was initially suspended from his duties, a decision he described as the “civilised and correct scenario” amid the ongoing investigation.
“I am not clinging to the position of minister,” Halushchenko wrote on X. “I will defend myself in court and prove my position.”
Amid growing public backlash, however, Zelensky said in an address posted on social media later on Wednesday that Halushchenko and Hrynchuk’s positions were untenable and urged them to resign to ensure “maximum integrity in the energy sector”.
“Right now it is extremely difficult for everyone in Ukraine — enduring power outages, Russian strikes, and losses. It is absolutely unacceptable that, amid all this, there are also some schemes in the energy sector,” Zelensky said, promising a “cleansing and reset” of Energoatom’s leadership.
Hrynchuk posted a photo of her handwritten resignation note on Facebook on Wednesday, stressing that her position had “never been an end in itself for me” and that there had been “no violations of the law” during her time in office.
