Naftogaz picks new CEO advisor
Ukraine's Naftogaz has hired Svitlana Zalishchuk as an international affairs advisor to newly-appointed CEO Yury Vitrenko, the national gas company reported on May 31.
Zalishchuk, a Ukrainian member of parliament between 2014 and 2019 and an advisor to former prime minister Oleksiy Honcharuk until March 2020, "will coordinate Naftogaz's cooperation with international partners, including G7 officials, and will perform representative functions at a high level," the company said in a statement. "Counteracting Nord Stream 2 will be one of her priorities," it added.
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Under Vitrenko, who took control of Naftogaz after the government's sacking of Andriy Kobolev in April, the company has ramped up pressure on European and US authorities to block Russia's Nord Stream 2 pipeline. Ukraine fears the project will strip it of billions of dollars in annual revenues for transiting Russian gas to Europe. However, it looks increasingly likely that the pipeline will be completed and put into operation, with the Biden administration recently waiving further sanctions against the project.
"Over the past several years, the Naftogaz team has managed to hold back the completion of Nord Stream 2 significantly. Yet we are far from being victorious, and Ukraine still needs to win its battle against the Russian geopolitical pipeline," Zalishchuk said in a statement. " We need to mobilise all branches of power in Ukraine and ensure clear and consistent coordination with our international partners who realize the threat posed by the Russian pipeline to all Europe. These are my priorities as I see them."
Nord Stream 2 is around 95% complete, and Russian officials are hopefully that it will be put into operation by the end of the year. Its launch was scheduled for the start of 2020 but was delayed because of permitting difficulties in Denmark and US sanctions, which forced Swiss contractor Allseas to halt construction and Russia to eventually bring in its own pipelaying vessels as a replacement.
Vitrenko last week brought on board Myron Wasylyk and Roman Suprun as advisors in the areas of international and Ukrainian government relations respectively.