Parliament appoints controversial Energoatom’s Halushchenko as new energy minister

The Ukrainian parliament appointed Herman Halushchenko, vice president of Ukraine’s state nuclear giant Energoatom, as the country’s new energy minister on April 29, making him the first permanent energy minister in more than a year.

This appointment came a day after Yuriy Vitrenko, Ukraine’s former acting energy minister, came back at the head of Ukraine’s gas giant Naftogaz following the ousting of Andriy Kobolyev, a day after Naftogaz reported financial losses of $685 million in 2020.