“Herman Galushchenko, until recently the Minister of Energy, was headed by the Ministry of Justice. Parliament approved this appointment by vote for the entire government. The transfer of Galushchenko to a new position argue for his years of law in jurisprudence and managerial talents. But this purpose is probably the most questions. On the one hand, the government looks like a “closed club” for its ultra -pity officials who are only rearranged with”, – WRITE ON: ua.news
Herman Galushchenko, until recently the Minister of Energy, was headed by the Ministry of Justice. Parliament approved this appointment by vote for the entire government. The transfer of Galushchenko to a new position argue for his years of law in jurisprudence and managerial talents.
But this purpose is probably the most questions. On the one hand, the government looks like a “closed club” for its ultra -pity officials, who are only rearranged from one position to another. On the other hand, these are real threats to braking reforms and European integration.
UA.News talks about Herman Galushchenko’s management careers, conflicts and relationships, why he remains a valuable shot for the President’s office and retains positions in the government.
Galushchenko’s career to the minister’s post
The experience of a lawyer in the public and private sector. Herman Galushchenko – a graduate of the Law Faculty of Lviv State University, has a degree of Candidate of Law. At the beginning of his career, he managed to work in the Lviv Prosecutor’s Office, in various positions in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as well as represented Ukraine in the Committee of the Council of Europe on Corruption.
In the track record of Herman Galushchenko-experience in the administrations of two presidents: Leonid Kuchma (1997-2005) and Viktor Yushchenko (2005-2020). In 2011-2013, for the premiere of Mykola Azarov, Galushchenko worked at the Ministry of Justice under the leadership of Alexander Lavrynovych: he was an assistant to the Minister, and also headed the Department of Judiciary.
In 2014, Galushchenko temporarily moved to the private sector, was a managing partner of the law firm “Ila”, and also taught at the Institute of International Relations of Kyiv National University. Taras Shevchenko.
In the same years he joined international legal work, prepared cases against Russia for illegal appropriation of assets of Ukrainian companies in Crimea. Also part of the team of international lawyers participated in proceedings against the Russian Federation in the UN International Court of Justice.
Galushchenko is also a member of the American Association of International Law, an arbiter from Ukraine at the International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) in Washington, acted as an arbitrator of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC).
Manager experience in energy. Since 2013, Galushchenko has moved to work in the energy sector. Initially, he held the position of Executive Director for the Legal Support of Energoatom under the leadership of Nikita Konstantinov (now the top manager of the Russian concern “Rosergoatom”), then held other management positions in the company. Since May 2020, a professional lawyer Herman Galushchenko became a vice -president for the development of Energoatom.
During this period, according to the people’s deputies and experts of the industry, the state company suffered 4.8 billion UAH of losses and was brought to a state of bankruptcy, with Ukraine importing Russian electricity. Galushchenko was then thrown incompetence and other managerial failures.
In January 2022, the Scheme project exposed the theft in Energoatom on the construction of a centralized storage of waste nuclear fuel in Chernobyl. The starting of the strategically important object was disrupted at the end of 2021. According to investigative journalists, at the time of signing the contract with the contractor, Galushchenko held the position of Vice President of Energoatom.
The exclusive of the Directorate for the Prevention and Combating Energoatom Corruption Yuriy Polishchuk He told that Galushchenko, together with other top executives of the state company, “began to introduce a conceptual regime of management in the company: when we write one thing in the documents, and in fact everything happens differently.”
The head of the Center for Combating Corruption Vitaliy Shabunin claimed that “Under Galushchenko’s leadership, the state” Energoatom “sold electricity to the oligarchs much (sometimes twice) cheaper than the market. For example, in just one week on this scheme, Energoatom presented our 65 million UAH to Akhmetov and Kolomoisky.
Despite the criticism of opponents, in 2021, Herman Galushchenko significantly rose in the administrative vertical – the Verkhovna Rada approved his appointment by the Minister of Energy, where he worked until July 2025, before “transfer” to the Ministry of Justice.
Galushchenko’s political ties
“Oligarchs Man”. Starting in 2021, when Herman Galushchenko headed the Ministry of Energy, in the media began in detail illuminate His non -public relations with influential political groups. It was noted that the Minister of Galushchenko was appointed at the initiative of the then pro -Russian People’s Deputy, and now the Sub -“Russian agent”, Andriy Derkach. In 2006–2007, Galushchenko, heading a law company, allegedly cooperated with Derkach when he managed Energoatom. But the minister’s official dossier is not indicated. The people’s deputy from Europe Solidarity Alexei Goncharenko directly called him “the man of the oligarch Derkach” during the appointment of Galushchenko.
The head of the Ministry of Energy was also linked to Presidential Assistant Sergei Shefir, who allegedly killed his work. Galushchenko himself stated that the statements about his “ties with the oligarchy – absolute fake”.
The influence of the President’s office . The topic of informal influence on the department continued for the next years. In 2023, the Ukrainian media wrote that energy was actually operating in the President’s office, and Galushchenko’s work is controlled by the deputy head of OP Rostislav Shurma, who worked for about 13 years in businessman Rinat Akhmetov’s businessman.
Beyond political struggle . Herman Galushchenko has never publicly identified significant political ambitions. His participation in political life was affected by participation in the governing bodies of the Patriot Country Party. In the 2019 presidential elections, Patriots were put forward by their candidate by economist Andrei Novak, who gained only 0.02% of the vote.
What was remembered by Galushchenko as Minister of Energy
Reconstruction, conflicts and corruption. Herman Galushchenko’s ministerial work was in the war years, when energy infrastructure was under constant blows, the country has repeatedly threatened Black. However, the assessment of the efficiency of the agency in the reconstruction of the grid after massive Russian shelling was ambiguous.
Herman Galushchenko himself, finishing cadence, wrote In the social network: “In 2024, 4 GW of power was restored after 13 massive rocket-okory attacks. Draft OM 2025 restored 2.2 GW of generating capacity. It is planned to bring this figure to 3.7 GW by the end of 2025. The power system is constantly recovering from the consequences of military aggression. Currently, the operating modes are balanced, there is no deficit in the power system. ”
According to the experts of the industry, the ministry still did not cope with the restoration of the power system after the Russian attacks. One of the critics of the reconstruction of the power system in the centralized format was previously the head of Ukrenergo Vladimir Kudrytsky. Galushchenko with him had a protracted conflict, which ended with the release of the top manager of the energy company. Later Kudrytsky He said about this situation as the ministry’s efforts to transfer to manual control of investment for the reconstruction of the power system.
A certain system was also traced in other personnel decisions of the minister. Earlier, our Money project noted that for one and a half years of work Galushchenko key positions in energy They took People loyal to him: Energoatom Chairman Petro Kotin, NERCEP Chairman Konstantin Ushchapovsky, Head of SE “Guaranteed Buyer” Andriy Pylypenko (his predecessor declared political pressure), Head of Market Operator Alexander Gavva and several more state managers in different positions.
This is not the only ambiguous episode that was remembered by Galushchenko’s ministerial work. There were also corruption scandals in his environment, in particular in August 2024, one of his deputies was caught on a bribe of half a million dollars. He organized a large -scale corruption scheme with permits for the removal of equipment from the war zone. The anti -corruption authorities did not touch Galushchenko at the time, explaining that the minister had assisted the investigation.
Lobbying and conflict with EU representatives. Galushchenko was particularly active in the completion and expansion of the Khmelnytsky Nuclear Power Plant. Although in July 2024 the Anti -Corruption Committee of the Verkhovna Rada revealed corruption risks in the bill on completion of 3 and 4 Khmelnitsky NPP units.
The project was also criticized by representatives of the European Union. In response, Galushchenko called them “middle -aged clerks” during an hour of questions in the Verkhovna Rada. The European Truth was received comment The EU’s EU Stocks in Ukraine Katarina Marynova, who stated that the bill on the completion of Khmelnitsky NPP units at the Western donors was developed without consultation with the European Union, so he will not finance this initiative.
But the Ukrainian side continued the project and ordered through “Energoatom” Revaluation completion of NPPs, worth 28 million UAH. The Ministry of Energy also planned to buy two reactors of Russian production in Bulgaria. The Bulgarian side refused to transfer this equipment in the discussion process.
However, a recently new Minister of Ministry of Energy Svetlana Grinchuk which in July replaced Galushchenko in this position, said negotiations with Bulgaria about the purchase of Russian reactors for Khmelnitsky NPPs so far ongoing . The observers are not overlooked by the fact that Grinchuk was still the deputy Minister of Galushchenko and his creature.
Galushchenko’s task in the new government
It is suggested that the need for curatories of such large -scale projects as the completion of the Khmelnytsky NPP has become one of the reasons why Herman Galushchenko was left in the government, albeit in another position.
At the same time, anti -reform backgrounds and conflicts, transferred from the Ministry of Energy, will now create a background for Galushchenko’s activities as a Minister of Justice. And in this position, he will be one of the officials responsible for European integration and the consistency of Ukrainian legislation with EU norms.
According to evaluations, the appointment of Galushchenko to this position causes many reservations, given the negative attitude of Europeans. After all, in Brussels, the former Energy Minister perceives as a person who destroys corporate governance reforms and hinders Ukraine’s requirements to the European Union.
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