KYIV: A former Ukrainian state energy operator chief suspected of embezzlement was ordered to be kept in detention by a Kyiv court Wednesday, stoking fears of political interference as the country enters its fourth war winter.
The ruling comes months after President Volodymyr Zelensky failed to curb the power of anti-corruption agencies, with critics saying the government may resort to more covert means of exerting pressure on political opponents.
Volodymyr Kudrytsky, a former head of Ukraine’s state energy company Ukrenergo, who had been sacked last year, is accused of participating in embezzling 13.7 million hryvnias ($327,000) in 2018, the prosecutors said.
The Pechersk District court in Kyiv on Wednesday ruled “to apply to Volodymyr Dmytrovych Kudrytsky ... a preventive measure in the form of detention,” a judge said.
He will spend two months in pre-trail detention unless he comes up with a $300,000 bail.
Kudrytsky called the ruling “absurd and unfounded,” according to the Ukrainska Pravda newspaper.
Head of Ukraine’s parliament anti-corruption committee Anastasia Radina said on social media that “as of now, the case appears to be nothing more than pressure” against Kudrytsky.
According to Ukrainian media, Radina and a few other lawmakers said they were ready to guarantee Kudrytsky’s bail.
Kudrytsky had overseen Ukraine’s electricity grid since 2020, including in the crucial years of the Russian invasion that has put the country’s energy infrastructure under immense pressure.
But he was suddenly dismissed last year in a move denounced as politically motivated by some members of the company’s board.
This year’s Russian campaign against Ukrainian energy infrastructure is especially harsh, with media reporting that strikes maybe halted 60 percent of Kyiv’s natural gas production, a predominant fuel for heating in the country.