Energoatom owes JSC Kyiv Research and Design Institute Energoproject (KIEP) more than UAH 25 million for work already completed, said chairman of the board of the institute, Yuriy Sapozhnykov.

"Energoatom's debts for work already completed, for which we paid taxes and waited 180 days of delay from the date of payment, reach more than UAH 25 million. With such debts, no organization can function," he said at the press conference "Energy Sector of Ukraine: Threats, Challenges, Solutions" at Interfax-Ukraine.

Sapozhnykov said that he regards the delay in payments as an attempt to put pressure on the independent design company in order to gain control over it.

In addition, he noted that Energoatom did not include KIEP in the list of institutions providing it with services, despite the fact that it is the main customer of the institute and has 53 existing contracts with it.

This, in turn, deprives Energoproject of the opportunity to reserve its workers from mobilization, Sapozhnykov pointed out, adding that KIEP is also not included in the list of 36 companies compiled by the Ministry of Energy that are important for the fuel and energy complex.

In his opinion, such actions carry the risk of a lack of generation projects and protective structures for them, including the risk of unfinished construction of the Khmelnytsky NPP, of which Energoproject has been the main designer since 1956, as well as the destruction of the country's design potential.