“9 billion thrown into the air”: Expert Kucherenko criticizes construction of protection of energy facilities
12 December 19:41
Energy expert Oleksiy Kucherenko has sharply criticized the decision to build a Level 3 defense for energy facilities, calling it “catastrophically wrong” and accusing a number of high-ranking officials and institutions of irresponsibility, which led to the inefficient use of 9 billion hryvnias of budget funds.
He wrote about this on Facebook, "Komersant Ukrainian" reports.
Oleksiy Kucherenko claims that UAH 9 billion allocated for the construction of the so-called Level 3 protection for energy facilities were “simply thrown into the air” because they were “closed in the ground and rolled in concrete” without providing adequate protection.
“This catastrophically wrong decision was imposed by the Recovery Agency headed by Nayem in early 2023, as it was the agency that was using the money (i.e., burying it in the ground). Unfortunately, the government of the day (Prime Minister Shmyhal) approved this decision and allocated budget money for it. This was a fatal mistake. Unfortunately, Minister of Infrastructure Kubrakov did not take a principled position. Unfortunately, NPC Ukrenergo (Kudrytskyi) did not take a principled position on this issue, although it had every opportunity to do so – construction was underway at their facilities, and the independent status of the board gave every reason for this,” Kucherenko writes.
According to him, a special investigation should clarify all the circumstances of this decision.
The cost of one Level 2 shelter is about UAH 130 million, and Ukrenergo’s facilities have shown this. That is, about 70 transformer shelters could have been built for this money. Moreover, this is where human and production resources should have been concentrated. Together with Ukrenergo’s own program at 86 facilities, this would have significantly improved the protection situation.
“This is the price of unprofessionalism and irresponsibility”
He emphasized:
“I am in no way claiming that this would have made blackouts impossible! But it is clear that the consequences of enemy strikes could have been much less – both for power engineers and consumers. Is it necessary to demand responsibility of officials now? In my opinion, yes, we do! First of all, so that today’s officials understand their responsibility for the situation. But at the same time, we need to stop hysteria and provocations in the media space – first of all, in relation to the energy sector! They are doing their best in this situation and do not deserve to be bullied by amateurs. They need maximum support.
In our turn, we have the right to demand objective and honest information about the situation from the government’s energy block – this is the only way to restore mutual trust and ensure the fairest possible distribution of the limited electricity resource,” the expert concluded.
