Yermak said ‘transparent’ competitions would be held for a new Board and for the post of Naftogaz chairman.

Ukraine’s international finance partners – including the World Bank, EBRD, and the IMF – criticized the end run around the Board as undermining corporate governance. On a visit to Kyiv last week, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told ICTV: “Honestly, it sent a bad message, a bad signal, and I think it had the potential to be damaging to Ukraine’s reputation internationally. But I think – my own sense is that the government understands that and hopefully will move forward on corporate governance [not only] with Naftogaz, but also with other big state-owned enterprises.”