Yulia Svyrydenko Could Lead Naftogaz: Blogger Serhii Lyamets Explained the Pros and Cons in Detail

Former Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko is not an oil or gas professional by education or specialty. But Naftogaz is a bureaucratic-administrative monster, so the task for its head is managerial: reallocation, balance, taxes, large projects, writes blogger Serhiy Lyamets. Yulia Svyrydenko was proposed for the post of Naftogaz head by President Volodymyr Zelensky, which automatically means a high chance of victory. Although, of course, the Supervisory Board will choose. About this in his author column “Who will become the new head of NAK ‘Naftogaz’ and does former Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko have a chance?” writes journalist and blogger Serhiy Lyamets. According to him, Yulia Svyrydenko is not an oil or gas professional by education or specialty. But Lyamets reminds that previously the heads of Naftogaz were the auditor Kobolev and the financier Vitrenko. “Thus the tradition of appointing technicians to technical positions has been broken by the very euro-integrators. They proved that Naftogaz is more about money and procedures than about production, processing, or repair. Naftogaz is a bureaucratic-administrative monster that should be destroyed. But that is unlikely to happen in the near years, so the task is purely managerial: reallocation, balance, taxes, large projects. All of this can be done by a person without a professional education who has an understanding of the big picture of the economy,” the expert notes. He emphasized that there is also a possible “against” that will be used in backroom battles—that is, Ms. Svyrydenko’s belonging to Zelensky’s team. “From the euro-integrators’ point of view, she is not independent. But, you know, this for me is more of a ‘for’ argument, because at least her belonging to the president’s team is openly acknowledged. But under whose influence all those ‘independent’ candidates operate is a big question. On the surface, they seem to be lone picks appointed for loyalty to the anti-corruption party line, but that’s just the surface. Since the very 2014 year I have not seen a single truly independent appointment along the euro-integrator line,” Lyamets notes. Among the arguments “for” the appointment of Svyrydenko as Naftogaz head, the expert points to her extensive experience in high state office. “Ms. Svyrydenko has already headed the Ministry of Economy, and later the government. So she is an administratively seasoned player. Do not expect her to have lost, wavering eyes and trembling hands. She will certainly know: how to conduct negotiations, how bureaucracy works, who decides which issues, whom to knock on for help, how to appoint and dismiss personnel, and a bunch of other questions. The job of Naftogaz’s head is as routine as any other large state post,” Lyamets notes. In his view, it is here that the experience of dealing with foreign donors available to Svyrydenko will come in handy. “It is Ms. Svyrydenko who conducted negotiations with Trump’s circle on a resource agreement and also negotiated with the EU on a new financing round. Both cases were successful. That is experience, more valuable than the biography of an activist,” emphasizes Serhiy Lyamets. He is convinced that Yulia Svyrydenko is a very professional candidate with a clear background. “She is not a profile Naftogaz professional, but she has many successful cases. So I won’t be surprised if she heads Naftogaz, and I won’t be surprised if she does very useful things. There are many more arguments in her favor than against,” the blogger Lyamets concludes. Earlier it was reported that among the effective results of Yulia Svyrydenko’s government work were improved macroeconomic indicators and increased state budget revenues. Domestic GDP rose by 1,8% for 2025 year and 3% in the fourth quarter, inflation in Ukraine decreased from 12% to 8%, and international reserves rose to a record 57,3 billion dollars, while own budget revenues grew to 1,9 trillion hryvnias, 107,5% of the plan.