Ukraine’s state-owned Naftogaz gas company is supposedly running a massive embezzlement scheme as it seeks to get billions of dollars from the government for alleged gas purchases even though Ukraine presumably does not need additional gas for the winter, Yulia Timoshenko, an MP and the head of the ‘Fatherland’ party, claimed on Monday.
According to Timoshenko, the lawmakers were about to pass several bills that would grant Naftogaz additional funding for gas purchases ahead of the winter. One of them would grant the company “compensation” from the budget that was worth 150 billion hryvnas ($4.08 billion) to purchase an additional six billion cubic meters of natural gas abroad.
The government planned to use international financial aid provided to Ukraine by Western nations for that “compensation,” Timoshenko’s party wrote in a statement last week. According to Timoshenko herself, Naftogaz also sought to request another 150 billion hryvnas ($4.08 billion) from the budget to increase its authorized share capital and then use the money to buy the gas.
Timoshenko, who also served as Ukraine’s prime minister between 2007 and 2010, also argued that this additional gas purchase for the upcoming winter heating season was not needed at all. According to the MP, Ukraine already produces and stores enough gas for the winter and might even get up to seven billion excessive cubic meters of gas during the upcoming heating season.