Operations unaffected by $100 mn graft probe: Ukraine's Energoatom

Ukraine's nuclear energy company said on Tuesday its operations are unaffected by a major graft investigation into the country's power sector that is centred on alleged kickbacks worth some USD 100 million.

Energoatom, a state-owned enterprise which generates more than half of Ukraine's energy supply, said in a statement that the probe by the National Anti-Corruption Bureau has not disrupted production or operational safety.

Its assurances came a day after the agency revealed some details of a 15-month investigation into suspected corruption in the energy sector, including at Energoatom.

Large amounts of Ukrainian and foreign funds have flowed into the energy sector as infrastructure is repeatedly repaired following relentless Russian aerial attacks. Ukraine's Energy Ministry said on Tuesday that Russia attacked energy infrastructure in the Kharkiv, Odesa and Donetsk regions overnight and that scheduled power outages were in place in most regions of Ukraine.

The Anti-Corruption Bureau is tasked with rooting out entrenched corruption, which is widely regarded as an impediment to Kyiv's efforts to obtain membership in the European Union. It targets high-level corruption, particularly cases involving senior officials and state-owned enterprises.

It previously reported uncovering a major graft scheme involving inflated military procurement contracts and the embezzlement of millions of dollars' worth of funds earmarked to buy mortar shells for Ukraine's efforts to foil Russia's all-out invasion.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy welcomed the latest probe. Any effective action against corruption is an urgent need, he said in his Monday night address to the nation.

He urged government officials to cooperate with investigators.

Zelenskyy has also faced public disapproval over the issue of graft. He quickly reversed course last month on a law that would have curbed the independence of the country's anti-corruption watchdogs after widespread street protests. EU officials also pressed him to change his mind.

The anti-graft investigators allege that Energoatom's suppliers were forced to pay bribes, amounting to between 10 per cent and 15 per cent of a contract's value, to keep providing services and goods to the company.

They also suspect that several high-ranking officials used their connections to maintain control over personnel decisions, procurement processes and the flow of financial resources to run the kickback scheme.

Meanwhile, Russia's Federal Security Service, known as the FSB, claimed on Tuesday that it had thwarted a Ukrainian intelligence plot to recruit Russian pilots and hijack a MiG-31 fighter jet carrying a hypersonic Kinzhal missile.

The FSB routinely claims to have thwarted plots against Russia, usually without providing any evidence. Ukrainian officials made no immediate comment.

Ukraine's general staff claimed its forces struck Russia's Saratov oil refinery overnight for the fifth time in recent months, starting what it called a massive fire.

It also claimed an attack on an oil terminal in the port of Feodosia, in Russia-occupied Crimea. The terminal is used to supply fuel and lubricants to the occupied peninsula and parts of southern Ukraine.