Groysman Plans to Replace the Energy Minister — Media

Groysman Plans to Replace the Energy Minister — Media

Energy and Coal Industry Minister Ihor Nasalyk will leave his post in the near future. The decision to replace Nasalyk has already been made by Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman. Consultations are currently ongoing about the identity of his successor.

This was learned from a source close to the prime minister, where this information is being actively discussed.

The most likely successor to Nasalyk as energy minister may be a native of the village of Kalynivka in Vinnytsia region, head of the parliamentary Committee on Fuel and Energy Complex Issues in the Verkhovna Rada — Oleksandr Dombrovskyi.

In the parliamentary elections in 2014 he was re-elected as a people's deputy of Ukraine from electoral district No. 11, ran from the Petro Poroshenko Bloc and received 51% of the vote. According to a source in the Cabinet, former energy ministers Ivan Plachkov and Volodymyr Demchyshyn are also being considered. “On the eve of expected summer peak loads on Ukraine’s power system, amid a coal shortage, Nasalyk’s successor must be competent and understand the real situation in Ukraine’s energy sector,” officials in the Cabinet complain.

In addition, according to the source, the Cabinet does not rule out the possibility that Nasalyk will remain in his post if all other candidates refuse to take on the sector at such a difficult time. The main complaint against Nasalyk is the complete lack of concrete actions by the ministry to reform the sector amid a large number of dubious public statements by the minister.

Since the beginning of 2017 the Ministry of Energy has shown a loss of control over the situation, ranging from the blockade of coal supplies from the ORDLO to the boycott of activities by the national joint-stock company Naftogaz of Ukraine, the Cabinet believes. A change of leadership should restore the situation and give a new impetus to reforms in the energy sphere.