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Automatically translated version. May contain inaccuracies compared to the original.
⁉️ So this is how they “cleansed” Energoatom of Derkach’s people, and a candidate from the old nuclear hierarchy ended up in leadership?
Energoatom has settled on new leadership. The winner of the competition for the company’s chairman of the board was Yuriy Tkachuk, who heads Ukrgazvydobuvannya. But the Supervisory Board effectively split the company’s leadership: it separately identified a candidate for the Chief Nuclear Officer (CNO) — the director responsible for nuclear and radiation safety. That person is Pavlo Pavlyshyn.
This position is far from decorative. Energoatom itself, when announcing the international competition, stated that the CNO must be responsible for the safe operation of nuclear generation. During the selection process, candidates were promised a comprehensive check of integrity, business reputation, and professional experience.
And it is the winner’s surname that raises a number of questions. In recent years, Ukraine’s nuclear sector has purportedly been undergoing a purge of old personnel networks, Russian influence, and people connected to former Energoatom head Andriy Derkach. Now one of the company’s key positions is being filled by Pavlo Pavlyshyn — a man whose career largely fell during the period of the old nuclear management hierarchy.
Pavlyshyn headed Rivne NPP in 2012, during the presidency of Viktor Yanukovych. At the same time he was a deputy of the Rivne Regional Council: official documents explicitly record him as a member of the Party of Regions faction. Later Pavlyshyn rose even higher: in December 2019 he became the acting head of all of Energoatom, after which he returned to Rivne NPP.
But the end of his career at the plant was far from smooth. In 2022 Pavlyshyn was moved from the position of general director of Rivne NPP to Atomremontservis. Media outlets also raised the issue of his license to perform activities related to managing a nuclear installation: it was reported that the regulator had at one time suspended that license due to systematic violations of licensing conditions. That is especially interesting now, because before Pavlyshyn’s final appointment to the new position he must once again undergo the relevant licensing.
A separate story is Pavlyshyn’s family. His son, Yevhen, became a figure in a high-profile criminal case after a conflict at a recreation base in 2022. After the beating, a 64-year-old woman was hospitalized and died a few days later.
And now the most interesting question — who might be behind Pavlyshyn’s return to major nuclear power. According to available information, among the people interested in his promotion is former head of the State Nuclear Regulatory Inspectorate, Hryhoriy Plachkov. In the public sphere, expert Olga Kosharna also spoke in support of Pavlyshyn’s professional qualifications.
This personnel chain then leads to far more interesting surnames. Plachkov once worked in the Ministry of Energy system, and later moved to Energoatom during the time of Mykyta Konstantinov. Konstantinov himself served as acting president of Energoatom in 2013–2014. Prior to that he had already worked as the company’s first vice president for economic policy and corporate development.
And here Andriy Derkach appears. Konstantinov served as Energoatom’s vice president during the period when the company was headed by Derkach. After the Revolution of Dignity, Konstantinov left Ukraine and continued his career in the Russian nuclear sector within Rosatom’s structures.
That is why the current decision regarding Pavlyshyn looks at least paradoxical…
For years we have been talking about the need to cleanse Ukraine’s nuclear energy sector of Russian influence and the old Derkach personnel networks. And after another reform and an international competition for one of the most important positions in Energoatom, they choose a person whose promotion again brings up the names of representatives of that same old nuclear hierarchy.
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