Ukraine arrests deputy minister in coal mining corruption case

Ukraine’s deputy energy minister has been arrested as part of a probe into bribery allegations, amid a government-led crackdown on corruption.
The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) announced on Monday that the senior official had been detained alongside three other suspects. The Ukrainska Pravda newspaper named the senior official as Oleksandr Kheil, who has since been dismissed from his role by the Cabinet of Ministers.
According to official statements, Kheil attempted to extort around half a million dollars in exchange for handing over mining equipment owned by a state-owned coal company in the battle-scarred Donetsk region, close to the front lines, and allowing it to be relocated to mines in the west of the country.
The SBU statement said Ukrainian Energy Minister German Galushchenko had uncovered the plans and reported his subordinate to the authorities.
The Ministry of Energy of Ukraine did not respond to a request for comment, but has issued a statement in which it vowed that “all people involved will be held accountable.”
“Cleansing the energy industry of any forms of corruption is one of the priorities of our work,” it said.
Olena Pavlenko, an energy sector expert and founder of Ukraine’s DiXi Group think tank, told POLITICO that the scandal would shine a light on the troubled industry.
“Our Energy Transparency Index and other work on data openness showed the coal sector was always the most closed and least transparent. This case shows there’s a connection between lack of transparency and potential corruption — so we need to ensure proper openness in the process of reconstruction.”
Russian missile and drone attacks have devastated Ukraine’s energy networks, and the country has received hundreds of millions of euros to support repair work.
Kyiv has made a series of arrests of top officials since the start of the war as part of efforts to crack down on graft. A report by the United States government, seen by POLITICO in October, found that corruption represented a major national security concern that could undermine the country’s ability to defend itself against Moscow’s aggression.