The Supervisory Board of Ukrainian nuclear utility Energoatom has dismissed Petro Kotin from the position of chairman of the board, appointing instead the General Director of the Rivne NPP, Pavlo Kovtonyuk. The Supervisory Board announced “the termination of powers and dismissal of Petro Kotin from the position of chairman of the company’s board. We express our gratitude to Mr Kotin for his decades of dedicated service to the company and for ensuring the safe and efficient operation of nuclear power plants and other Energoatom facilities”.
It also proposed the creation of three new key Energoatom positions: Chief Operating Officer (COO), Vice President of Management & Ethics, and Vice President of Finance & Strategy. The Supervisory Board took this decision due to the need to maintain a total of five board positions. The supervisory board plans to start the competitive selection of a permanent board chairman soon, as well as all other board positions.
Kotin has headed Energoatom since March 2020, initially as the company’s acting president. In February 2023, the Verkhovna Rada (parliament) adopted a law on corporatisation of the company, and Energoatom was transformed into a joint-stock company, 100% of which is owned by the state, and Kotin became Chairman of the Management Board.
Yaroslav Zheleznyak, a member of the Verkhovna Rada, commenting on the speed with which Kotin was fired, pointed out that he may now be considered a suspect in a corruption case. He pointed to Kotin’s connection with Ukrainian businessman Timur Mindich, who is known as Vladimir Zelensky’s wallet. “There is an unstoppable feeling that the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) and Kotin will finally get closer and closer. You could say that they are just one suspicion away,” he wrote on his Telegram channel.
Ukrainian media outlets suggested several possible reasons for Kotin’s dismissal including Energoatom’s financial transactions in 2023-2024. For example, it was reported that the company lost approximately UAH300m ($7.2m) as a result of schemes involving the sale of electricity involving fraudulent activities with third-party companies. Journalists eported that Kotin lives in an estate worth about UAH7m near Kyiv, which was registered in the name of his mother-in-law, a pensioner. These circumstances prompted the National Agency for the Prevention of Corruption (NAPC) to start monitoring his activities.
