The firing of the head of Ukraine’s national electricity grid operator has sparked a rebellion at the top of the company, with two board members announcing their resignation in protest at the decision.
In a statement issued Tuesday, Daniel Dobbeni and Peder Andreasen said they would quit their supervisory roles at Ukrenergo after the dismissal of CEO Volodymyr Kudrytsky, which had occurred just hours earlier.
The pair, who have both previously helmed Europe’s electricity operators’ network, said the decision “is politically motivated” and that “there are no valid grounds for it.” The duo claimed they had seen a political campaign to delegitimize his leadership up close.
“We felt political pressure and observed constant attempts to bypass the competition to appoint people whose professional qualities were doubtful to the Management Board of the Company,” they wrote. “We regularly received reports from the Company’s management during meetings about the negative impact on the Company’s reputation of anonymous sources in social media and pressure on employees from law enforcement agencies.”
