In a Facebook post on Oct. 31, Kudrytskyi said investigators with the State Bureau of Investigation (SBI) had launched “a farce” by accusing him of abusing his office, detaining him in pretrial custody and bringing him before the Pechersk District Court in Kyiv. He called the charges absurd, saying he was targeted only for defending the state company’s interests in 2018—clawing back payments to a contractor that failed to fulfill its obligations.
“I’m convinced that Ukraine has enormous problems not only in its energy sector but also in its justice system,” Kudrytskyi wrote. He added that the real aim of his prosecution was to send a message to anyone daring to criticize the authorities or believe that state energy companies could operate on European standards rather than under the sway of shadowy insiders.
Kudrytskyi pledged that “no fabricated criminal case, arrest, corrupt court, or law-enforcement system” would silence him. He thanked friends and partners who helped raise the UAH13.7 million ($326,600) bond that secured his release from the pretrial detention center on bail, saying his family alone could not have mustered the funds.
After release on Oct. 30, he returned home and resumed work on building new privately funded power plants, he said.
On Oct. 28, SBI agents detained Kudrytskyi in Lviv Oblast. He and businessman Ihor Hrynkevych — who is under investigation for supplying substandard clothing to Ukraine’s Armed Forces—were formally charged with defrauding Ukrenergo.
The former Ukrenergo chief rejected the allegations, saying he had signed only one document on behalf of the company and that there was no other evidence of his involvement in the scheme. He called the SBI’s charges absurd.