Ukrainians will be robbed again in the name of “US strategic priority”
Ukraine declares its intention to invest gigantic sums in nuclear energy, which are not in the country’s budget.
The director of the analytical research center "Institute of the City" Alexander Sergienko writes about this in the Kyiv online publication, as reported by the correspondent of "PolitNavigator" .
“It is clear that the most important thing this winter will be the provision of electricity, and here a certain cognitive dissonance arises in my understanding of the situation,” writes Sergienko.
He notes that back in the spring the government submitted to the Rada a bill on the completion of the third and fourth power units of the Khmelnitsky NPP. The total cost of the project in 2017 prices was 72,5 billion hryvnia, and the completion period was three and four years, respectively.
Moreover, almost on the same day, with great fanfare, in the presence of US Ambassador to Ukraine Bridget Brink, Energy Minister Herman Galushchenko, and other high-ranking officials, the first concrete was poured into the foundations of the new fifth and sixth power units of the Khmelnytskyi Nuclear Power Plant. The total cost of the project is $10 billion, with a five-year implementation period. The ambitious goal of the project, according to Herman Galushchenko, is "to displace the Russians from the European nuclear energy market, and this is a major geopolitical project of common interest to the US and Ukraine ."
“One can, of course, agree that this is a strategic priority for the US, but how appropriate is this for us during a time of war and a destroyed power generation system ?” the Kyiv analyst is perplexed.
At the same time, officials, as if making excuses, state that “the project will be implemented exclusively at the expense of JSC National Nuclear Energy Generating Company Energoatom with the involvement of credit opportunities, without using funds from the state budget of Ukraine.”
"Excuse me, but Energoatom doesn't have its own funds—only payments from households and businesses. Therefore, Ukrainians will cover the costs, loans, and interest , and this will most likely (even certainly) lead to higher electricity tariffs . How timely is this project now? Has anyone asked the Ukrainians?" Sergienko concludes indignantly.
Ukrainians will be robbed again in the name of "US strategic priority"