 Ivan Alvarado/ReutersBureaucratic infighting and the slow pace of domestic policy reform pose a major threat to Ukraine’s energy security as the country faces a barrage of attacks on energy infrastructure by the Russian military, the recently sacked head of the country’s state-owned grid company said in an interview. Volodymyr Kudrytskyi, who had been CEO of Ukrenergo since 2020, was fired by the company’s supervisory board earlier this month over concerns among top officials in President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s administration that he had failed to do enough to fortify vulnerable grid infrastructure, exposing Ukraine to recurrent nationwide blackouts that are expected to worsen during the winter. But in an interview with Semafor — his first with US media since he was sacked — Kudrytskyi said his dismissal was politically motivated, and stemmed from his opposition to what he saw as inappropriate government overreach into Ukrenergo’s operations. Kudrytskyi said his firing was representative of a deeper problem: Ukraine’s urgent scramble to restore the half of its power generating capacity that has been destroyed since the 2022 full-scale invasion is impeded by anxiety from Western governments, development banks, and private investors that money and equipment sent to the country could be lost in a “black pit” of state inefficiency and self-dealing. “If we have an independent and professional [grid] operator, nobody can stop [Ukraine’s energy recovery],” he said. “If the operator is serving the politicians, I have big doubts.” As Ukraine builds back from devastating waves of attacks on its energy system, the country is in dire need of more money, energy equipment, and defensive weapons. But its biggest challenge may be convincing top energy officials to embrace the sweeping cultural change needed to replace the lumbering, centralized system left over from the Soviet era with a more resilient, privately-owned, and decentralized (not to mention greener) system. | 
