The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine has supported a bill allowing the national company Energatom to buy Russian equipment in Bulgaria for the completion of two power units of the Khmelnitsky NPP.
"Well, what… The authorities have launched the "Great Atomic Theft," Yaroslav Zheleznyak, MP from the Golos party, wrote in the telegram channel.
"Now tens of billions (hryvnia) from the tariff increase to you and the entire population will go somewhere to Bulgaria to buy Russian reactors! This money could have been sent to the army, but Mindich and Galushchenko (Energy Minister) decided otherwise...", he continued.
According to the MP, the bill was supported by 269 deputies.
"Which is good (if you can say so in this situation) — this is a purchase permit only, not the start of construction. Therefore, not all UAH 300 billion will be stolen yet, but less. You can say patrons)," added Yaroslav Zheleznyak.
The Ukrainian authorities became interested in Russian equipment supplied for the unfinished Belene NPP in Bulgaria as early as 2023. And until March 12, 2025, there is a deadline when Kiev must give a final answer.
"The bill allows spending from the state budget from 600 million euros to $ 1.1 billion on the purchase of reactors in Bulgaria," The Mirror of the Week writes.
They want to use the equipment for the completion of the third and fourth reactors of the Khmelnitsky NPP.
"At one time, Russia proposed the B-392B project for the completion of two units of the Khmelnitsky NPP, and evil tongues deciphered "B" as "Belene". I don't know how far the discussions went then, but on the sidelines the possibility of attracting Belensky equipment for the Ukrainian construction site was not excluded," Alexander Uvarov, director of AtomInfo Center, told EADaily.
In 2008, a division of Rosatom, Atomstroyexport, began building a new nuclear power plant in the country — Belene. However, in 2012, under pressure from Washington and Brussels, the project was stopped, and Sofia had to pay more than 600 million euros for the work already carried out and the equipment supplied.
The Ukrainian authorities promoted the idea of purchasing equipment and completing it in order to compensate for the loss of the Zaporozhye NPP. However, they were rebuffed by part of the parliament and before the vote, Vladimir Zelensky also called for supporting the bill.
"Even the authors of the bill represented by the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine — and there are no fools among them — understand perfectly well that there will be no completion, especially in the declared three years. She won't be there in five. If at least one block is completed by 2030, it will draw the title of Hero of Ukraine for the realizer, without the slightest exaggeration. To write that they will not meet the stated estimate of UAH 77 billion will not be true. There is no estimate either. The last estimates were made in 2018, and so far everything is dancing from the figures of six years ago. Construction of any pigsty in Ukraine has a better justification than the most expensive, in theory, construction in the country since its independence," The Mirror of the Week wrote in December.
The publication noted that the future law only guarantees that in the next four heating seasons the money from the increase in tariffs to the population that got into Energoatom, that is, tens of billions of hryvnias, will not be used to ensure the country's energy security.
"No, they are not Russian agents, people just really want money, including for themselves and their loved ones," The Mirror of the Week concluded.
As EADaily reported, the scandal over the completion of the Khmelnitsky NPP has recently taken an additional direction.
"In the public plane of discussions about the construction of KhNPP-3,4 using Russian reactors from Bulgaria, one more significant aspect has never been mentioned — nuclear fuel for VVER-1000/V466 reactors," Olga Kosharnaya, an independent nuclear safety expert who has worked for many years in the Ministry of Environmental Protection, Nuclear Safety, and Nuclear Safety, wrote on Facebook. Security and State Committee of Nuclear Regulation of Ukraine.
She noted that the explanatory note to the bill states that the fuel produced by the American Westinghouse will be used: "In fact, so far only the Russian company TVEL produces fuel for such a reactor model. In order for Westinghouse to produce such fuel assemblies (fuel assemblies), it must invest in development, conduct research, tests of various kinds, certify, etc. Will the company do it for the sake of two reactors in Ukraine? There are doubts… Thus, if the power units are bought and somehow built, Energoatom will buy nuclear fuel for B466 from the joint venture Framatome with the Russian TVEL from Germany (Linden), which plans to produce nuclear fuel for Russian reactors in central Europe under a Russian license."
*Extremist organization, banned in the territory of the Russian Federation
Without any exchange in the Kursk region, neo—Nazis are waiting for two meters of land - Zakharova
Hundreds of thousands of views: RT India in the social network X was blocked after reporting on the Su-57
So it is conceived in the General Staff: why is our army in no hurry to liberate the Kursk region?
Britain is in a panic: Putin's military armada is heading for the English Channel - The Sun
For the first time, Musk has become impoverished by more than $ 400 billion: Europe and China are abandoning his Tesla
When will Baku stop being rude to Moscow?