Conflict between Poroshenko and Kolomoisky intensifies

The conflict between Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and Dnipropetrovsk governor Igor Kolomoisky intensified on March 23, with the mutual exchange of warnings and accusations of crime. Energy Minister Volodymyr Demchyshyn told a press conference that day that he ordered the funds of all state companies managed by his ministry, including Ukrtransnafta, to be transferred to state accounts at state banks. State monopoly Naftogaz of Ukraine reported on March 20 that most of Ukrtransnafta’s funds are in a private bank account controlled by Kolomoisky. He also said that he expects the state will succeed in replacing the management at Ukrnafta, after the legislation passed last week reducing the quorum needed to call shareholder meetings.

The Ukrainian government won’t allow the emergence of “pocket armies,” Poroshenko told a meeting of battalion commanders on March 23, referring to the armed men dispatched by Kolomoisky to Ukrnafta headquarters the prior day. “The territorial defense will be organized under a clear hierarchy and we won’t have any governor with his own pocket armed forces,” he said, as reported by the presidential website. He ordered the disarming of all men at Ukrnafta headquarters, who have been identified by the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) as belonging to the Sich security company controlled by Kolomoisky.

The SBU is investigating whether officials in the Dnipropetrovsk State Oblast Administration, which is led by Kolomoisky, have been involved in financing armed gangs that engaged in murder, kidnapping and transporting contraband across the separation line of the Anti-Terrorist Operation, SBU Head Valentyn Nalyvaychenko told a March 23 press briefing.  “We have a matter with an exceptionally dangerous interregional gang that made money off blood while cynically abusing their membership in volunteer battalions,” he said.

Two key deputies to Kolomoisky, Gennady Korban and Sviatoslav Oliynyk, have already been questioned in relation to the late February kidnapping of a Dnipropetrovsk city official, he said. These officials threatened violence against law enforcement officials that tried to halt the transport of contraband across the ATO separation line, Nalyvaychenko said. The charges of kidnapping and murder of an SBU captain have been merged into a single case, he said.

In response to the president’s accusations, Ukrnafta released a statement on its website stating that no arms are on its territory, or those neighboring. In response to the criminal investigation, Korban demanded the creation of a parliamentary temporary investigative committee to examine the allegations against himself and Oliynyk. Nalyvaychenko’s claim are “cynical, brazen lies” and he should resign if they prove false, Korban said. Moreover, the SBU itself is handling the transport of contraband in the ATO zone. The Kyiv government has failed to uphold its promises of financial decentralization, Korban said, accusing it of also lying about the ATO’s progress and number of casualties. “Thieves are sitting in Kyiv today, and it’s time that they leave,” he said.

Zenon Zawada: It’s very unfortunate that the conflict between Ukraine’s two most powerful individuals has reached this intensity on a public level, with mutual accusations of criminal activity. This is reminiscent of the conflict of 2005 between the two pro-Western leaders (Yushchenko and Tymoshenko) that eventually led to the victory of the Russian-oriented President Viktor Yanukovych in the 2010 election. Just as that conflict undermined Ukraine’s Western integration, this conflict has the potential to undermine Ukrainian statehood altogether, amid attempts to defend against Russian aggression.

We didn’t expect the conflict would get this ugly, this fast, and it’s unclear at this point whether the sides will be able to reach some agreement. Accusations are standard fare in Ukrainian politics, but with the launch of criminal investigations against Kolomoisky’s men – accusing them of involvement in crimes as serious as murder and kidnapping – the genie has been let out of the bottle.

It’s hard to see how the Kyiv government can mend fences with the Kolomoisky team after such accusations have been aired, and how the latter can restore trust in the Kyiv government to cooperate in the future. It’s also hard to see how control of Ukrnafta – a very profitable state enterprise at the very heart of this conflict– will be divided, if at all.