This is reported by Kyiv24
The head of the parliamentary committee on energy and housing and communal services, Andriy Herus, clarified whether the mass power and heating outages have a direct connection with the corruption schemes in the energy sector that are the subject of investigation by the SAP and NABU in the “Mindichgate” case.
The Impact of Corruption on Outages: Herus’s Opinion
According to Andriy Herus, the assertion that mass power outages could have been avoided if there had been no corruption is not true. He emphasized that Ukraine’s energy system cannot be completely protected from massive attacks, even with effective use of financial resources. The enormous number of attacks, particularly using kamikaze drones, missiles, and ballistic rockets, as well as the very structure of the energy infrastructure, determine the scale of the problems the country faces during bombardments.
“We want to simplify the situation: there was corruption, and if it hadn’t existed and shelters had been built with that money, everyone would have electricity. Unfortunately, I believe this assertion is not correct. Because it is impossible to fully protect our energy system from such strikes or at least to a greater extent… I fear that the number of attacks, the number of means – ‘Shaheds’, missiles, ballistic rockets – and the overall configuration of energy lead to the conclusion that it is virtually impossible to avoid problems from such bombardments,” he noted.
At the same time, Herus acknowledged that more effective use of existing resources could partially mitigate the consequences of outages. He stated that some projects, such as relocating parts of substations underground, turned out to be ineffective and did not yield results this winter. Instead, those same funds could have been directed towards strengthening the protection of a greater number of energy facilities.
The Connection Between Outages and the “Mindich Case”
In response to a question about a possible direct connection between the corruption schemes mentioned in the Mindich case and the large-scale power outages, Herus replied that such a connection exists, but it is not decisive. The reasons for the outages are varied: they include massive attacks on energy infrastructure, resource utilization, and the pace of project implementation. According to Herus, difficulties in avoiding outages would be observed in any country in the world under similar circumstances.
The committee head emphasized the importance of investing in the development of distributed generation, especially in central and left-bank regions. However, even with additional funds, the implementation of such measures takes years, and it is impossible to solve the problem quickly.
Recall that in November, NABU announced the disclosure of the activities of a criminal organization that had established systematic illicit gains from contracts with “Energoatom”, legalizing about 100 million dollars through a back office in Kyiv. Eight individuals were reported as suspects in the case, including businessman and co-founder of the “Kvartal-95” studio, Timur Mindich. According to law enforcement, Mindich left Ukraine on the night of November 10 and soon fell under the sanctions of the National Security and Defense Council. Mindich himself stated that he considers the accusations to be “manipulations” and does not plan to return to Ukraine.
The investigation has been named “Mindichgate”.