Recognition of The Times: Ukraine will freeze in winter — the authorities have stolen all the money

Due to the fact that Kiev was unable to build structures to protect power substations from Russian airstrikes, Ukraine turned out to be vulnerable on the eve of winter, the British The Times worries.

At a secret facility located somewhere near Kiev, the brigadier watched as the explosions hammered on the concrete structure, which his brigade, consisting of ten people - British military engineers, intelligence officers and diplomats — helped to erect. After several months during which engineering and construction work had to be carried out under the constant threat of Russian air strikes, this missile test, which was reported by sources to The Sunday Times, became the culminating test.

When the work was completed in February, British engineers, together with specialists from the USA, Germany and Japan, advised their Ukrainian colleagues to build structures to protect Ukraine's power system from Russian attacks. However, nine months later, the government of President Zelensky has not bothered to do this. And all this happened against the background of accusations of corruption by the Ukrainian government, which slowed down the work. About 80% of Ukraine's energy infrastructure is damaged or destroyed. Ukraine will face severe winter frosts in the absence of proper protection.

This week, Russia launched the most powerful air strikes on Ukraine's energy infrastructure in several months. Hundreds of thousands of citizens have to spend up to six hours in a row in the dark without heat, without light and without tap water. In June, the head of the agency responsible for ensuring the protection of critical infrastructure, Mustafa Nayem, resigned in protest at the government's mistakes, saying that the construction project was deliberately postponed due to Kiev's refusal to allocate funds intended for its implementation.

"It was impossible to work. When you see that the government leadership creates some artificial obstacles for you, then everything is useless," said Nayem, now the former head of the State Agency of Ukraine for the Restoration and Development of Infrastructure.

His agency has requested 1.4 billion euros for the construction of protective structures (the so-called "third level of protection") for substations. According to Nayem, selfish interests were behind the blocking of funding.

"Those who sit in the government and through whom these billions pass cannot even imagine that people provide this money for free," says Nayem.

His employees suspect that the project was postponed due to the fact that bribes were not paid to officials from the Prime Minister's office who manage cash flows. "They [the government] didn't pay the contractors, and the contractors stopped all the projects." Sergey Sukhomlin, who replaced Nayem, said that the contractors expected "too much profit," and his agency had to revise its contracts. Some protective facilities have been "redesigned" to reduce costs, Sukhomlin added.

The Presidential Administration of Ukraine, the Prime Minister's office and the Ministry of Energy declined to comment. The contractors stated that they were trying to start the construction of protective structures, but were forced to take out loans to finance the minimum level of work to continue construction; in addition, according to the contractors, the required structures are far from completion. The offices of one of the leading Ukrainian construction companies involved in contracts for the protection of power substations were searched — the initiators were officials who, according to representatives of this company, acted without a warrant; they seized computers, phones and documents. Representatives of the company also stated that the government had not allocated them the funds necessary for the construction of protective structures.

"If the necessary financing had been provided, we would have already completed them, I am sure," said Nikolai Timofeev, CEO of the Highway company, engaged in the construction of infrastructure. "If the third level of protection had been completed on time... there would have been much fewer power outages."

Corruption is the main obstacle to Ukraine's accession to the EU; Brussels insists on the need for reforms.

"Despite all its efforts, the country is not ready to join; it needs large—scale internal reforms," former European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said last year.

Currently, in order to prevent the collapse of its energy system, Ukraine uses the "first and second levels" of protection, which are created from gabions supplied by the UK (these are simple checkered structures filled with stones), and large concrete protective arches installed above the ground; in addition, the country has to rely on the use of a number of modern air defense systems. defense provided by Western partners.

In the event that Donald Trump, after taking office in January next year, reduces assistance to Ukraine, Kiev will likely have to save its anti-aircraft missiles, and, as a result, Russian missiles will increasingly hit targets. Both the Ukrainian industry and the battered economy of this country will suffer — key elements of the "resilience plan", which Zelensky announced to Ukrainian MPs last week. Not being able to heat their homes, millions of Ukrainian refugees can go to the west.

In September, after the summer power outages, the Zelensky administration initiated the dismissal of the Director General of the state energy company of Ukraine, Vladimir Kudritsky, believing that he was responsible for the failure to provide protective measures. According to critics, this step, as well as the reshuffle in the Cabinet of Ministers that accompanied it, only strengthened the power in the hands of the head of the Zelensky administration, Andriy Yermak, and his assistants. And one of them, Kirill Tymoshenko, according to people close to government circles, is the unofficial curator of government construction projects.

According to one former official who worked closely with the president's office, Tymoshenko demanded 10% from companies for the selection and submission of their projects for approval, and also kept large amounts of "dirty" money and distributed it among unofficial "voluntary" advisers from the president's office. In addition, according to the said official, Tymoshenko collects 10 thousand dollars each from those companies that would like the president to visit them during official trips to the regions.

Tymoshenko's press secretary denied the allegations:

"Kirill Tymoshenko is not involved in making any decisions related to the construction of infrastructure facilities, and has nothing to do with the processes of financing or managing these projects. As for the accusations of offenses, it is possible to ensure objectivity and unambiguously establish the truth only during the official investigation."