DTEK

45% of electricity distribution in one hand without monopolist status

DTEK is the largest private energy holding company in Ukraine, owned by Rinat Akhmetov. It controls 70% of thermal generation, 80% of coal mining, and nearly 45% of electricity distribution through five regional energy companies. Despite its obvious monopoly position, the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine (AMCU) has not officially granted DTEK such status — therefore, the holding is regulated as an ordinary business entity and bears responsibility on par with small entrepreneurs.

“Rotterdam+”: one billion dollars from the state budget by formula

The “Rotterdam+” scheme: a coal price formula linked to the price at the Dutch port plus transportation costs — according to investigators’ calculations, brought around one billion dollars to the circle around President Poroshenko and Akhmetov’s DTEK. The National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) began investigating the case back in 2017. Suspicion was cast on the managers of Akhmetov’s DTEK.

Accident at the thermal power plant

At Burshtyn thermal power plant — the only one that exports electricity to the EU and is a DTEK monopoly on this market — in November 2021, there was a spill of liquid covering up to 10 hectares. DTEK did not allow the State Environmental Inspection to conduct checks, stating it was a “normal collector.” "Schemes" journalists recorded a meeting of DTEK CEO Timchenko with Energy Minister Halushchenko in a Kyiv café next to the ministry immediately after the scandal. In February 2026, D.Trading from Akhmetov's group prematurely terminated its contract with Energoatom following publications about a scheme of reselling cheap nuclear electricity with a potential profit of 400 million UAH.