Ukrainian government suspends Energoatom vice president and board member

Ukraine's Prime Minister Yuliia Svyrydenko has announced that the government has suspended Yakob Khartmut, vice president and board member of Energoatom, Ukraine's state-owned nuclear energy company, following an investigation by the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU).

Source: Yuliia Svyrydenko on social media

Quote: "On the basis of files received from NABU, the government has moved to suspend Yakob Khartmut, vice president and board member [of Energoatom – ed.], with immediate effect."

Details: Svyrydenko said the Cabinet of Ministers (the Ukrainian government) has also instructed Energoatom's acting chair of the board to suspend Dmytro Basov, chief adviser to the president of Energoatom, who has been served with a notice of suspicion. The government has further ordered the suspension of other Energoatom personnel whose possible involvement in criminal offences is currently being examined by law enforcement, namely:

• The director for finance and budgeting
• The director for legal support
• The head of the separate Centralised Procurement unit

Quote: "If in the course of NABU's investigation other employees are identified as implicated in criminal offences, the acting chair of the board [of Energoatom – ed.] must suspend them and cooperate fully with the inquiry in relation to those individuals."

Background:

• Khartmut was appointed as an acting member of the company's board in December 2023.
• The NABU earlier disclosed details of Operation Midas, an investigation into a large-scale corruption scheme at Energoatom.
• The ringleader is alleged to be Tymur Mindich, a businessman and co-owner of Kvartal 95, the TV production company that Volodymyr Zelenskyy founded before he became president.
• Mindich is alleged to have exerted influence over former energy minister Herman Halushchenko and former defence minister Rustem Umierov.
• On the morning of 12 November, Prime Minister Yuliia Svyrydenko announced that Herman Halushchenko has been suspended as justice minister following NABU's high-profile investigation into corruption at Energoatom.

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