The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine voted to dismiss Svitlana Hrynchuk from the position of Minister of Energy. A total of 315 members of parliament voted in favor of the decision. The Speaker of the Parliament, Ruslan Stefanchuk, signed the resolution on the dismissal and announced a break in the session.
This is reported by Kyiv24
Discussion in Parliament and Absence of Ministers
Before the vote, deputies demanded that Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko, as well as the Ministers of Justice and Energy — Herman Halushchenko and Svitlana Hrynchuk — report to the Rada. However, Svyrydenko did not appear in parliament, and instead, the draft resolution for the dismissal of the two ministers was presented by the Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration, Taras Kachka. Both Herman Halushchenko and Svitlana Hrynchuk were also absent from the meeting. According to Kachka, there were no business trips for these officials, and no evidence of their crossing the border was recorded.
Corruption Scandal in the Energy Sector
On November 17, opposition political forces “Holos” and “European Solidarity” called for the resignation of the entire Cabinet of Ministers and the formation of a new coalition in parliament due to a large-scale investigation into corruption in the energy sector. On November 10, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) reported the exposure of a criminal group that systematically received illegal benefits from Energoatom contractors amounting to 10-15% of the value of contracts. According to NABU, these funds were laundered through a back office in the center of Kyiv, through which approximately 100 million dollars passed. The investigation established that the office premises belonged to the family of former people’s deputy and now senator of the Russian Federation Andriy Derkach, who is also involved in criminal proceedings by NABU and SAP.
315 deputies voted “for” this decision.
The case involves former business partner of Volodymyr Zelensky from “Kvartal 95” Timur Mindich (who, according to law enforcement, left Ukraine), former Minister of Energy Herman Halushchenko, whose resignation was initiated by the government, as well as former Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine Oleksiy Chernyshov. NABU has already announced suspicions against eight individuals, five of whom have been detained.
NABU detective Oleksandr Abakumov stated in a program for “Ukrainska Pravda” that during the investigation, detectives recorded four ministers of the Cabinet, but they were officials from different periods, not just the current government composition.
Several days after the investigation began, Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko submitted a proposal to parliament for the dismissal of Herman Halushchenko and Svitlana Hrynchuk.