With this issue, we launch a series of quarterly analytical reviews dedicated to the development of corporate governance of state-owned enterprises in Ukraine. The reviews are prepared as part of the research Assessing Control Architecture in State-Owned Energy Enterprises in Ukraine: Gaps in Corporate Governance Implementation and focus primarily on the state-owned energy sector, where corporate governance, internal control systems, and oversight mechanisms remain critically important — both for the resilience of the sector itself and for the broader public administration reform.
This issue is introductory and preparatory in nature. It offers a brief historical overview of corporate governance reform in Ukraine’s state sector, along with a review of the key regulatory acts adopted in 2024, which marked one of the most significant milestones in the transformation of state-owned enterprise governance in recent years.
At the presentation of the OECD Review of the Corporate Governance of State-Owned Enterprises in Ukraine on 1 April 2026, the OECD welcomed Ukraine’s progress in strengthening the legislative and institutional foundations of SOE corporate governance. At the same time, the Organisation specifically emphasised that the next and most challenging stage of the reform must be the consistent and effective implementation of these changes in practice. This entails strengthening institutional capacity and building an effective governance and control system capable of supporting the country’s reconstruction, fiscal sustainability, and investor confidence.
The events of late 2025 and early 2026 (see Section 3 of this issue) illustrated the practical complexity of this stage. The corruption scandal involving politically exposed persons (known as «Mindichgate»), followed by the resignation of two ministers, exposed certain weaknesses of the existing control system — particularly under conditions of significant political influence. Certain crisis-response measures taken by the state with respect to energy sector companies had, in their design and timing, the characteristics of reactive rather than systemic action, and their effects appear more consistent with addressing the immediate political fallout than with remedying the underlying institutional weaknesses. In a number of cases, such measures also generated new governance and legal risks, reflecting a gap between the declared principles of corporate governance and the manner in which individual decisions were taken.
The publication was prepared with the financial support of the UK Agency for International Development under the project “Implementation of the National Energy and Climate Plan of Ukraine and establishment of the Green Transition Office” implemented by DIXI GROUP NGO. The contents of the publication are the sole responsibility of DIXI GROUP NGO and under no circumstances can be considered to reflect the position of the UK Agency for International Development.