When 60% of the gas infrastructure is destroyed, Ukrainian gas should not be locked up. The CEO of Smart-Holding, Ivan Gerasimovich, called on the authorities to unblock the work of gas producing companies of the Smart Energy group, which are in forced downtime due to the sanctions policy. 

"In conditions when there is a shortage of gas in the country, companies need to be given the opportunity to work. If there are claims against specific persons, sort it out, collect evidence, and go to court. But don't equate business with personalities. Novynskyi is a historical founder, but since 2022 it has neither actually nor legally been related to the work of business," Ivan Herasimovych said during a discussion at the Forbes Money conference

Today, Smart Holding Group is Ukrainian gas, jobs for Ukrainians and support for the budget of Ukraine: 
- 1,587 employees across the country, and 3000 in the first year of the full-scale invasion 
- 1.2 billion in taxes and fees in 2024, and it should have been UAH 2.4 billion. if gas were to be extracted 
- UAH 3.2 billion of suspended investments in Ukrainian subsoil; 
- USD 74 million in humanitarian and defense aid 

Against the backdrop of a critical shortage of natural gas in storage facilities and the need to import it at high European prices, by the end of 2025, the energy system will lose 85.5 million cubic meters of gas, which will not be able to be produced by Smart Energy group companies, and the budget will lose UAH 1.2 billion in taxes. 

The CEO noted that the problem of gas producing enterprises of the Smart Energy group of companies is the blocking of gas production permits due to the application of personal sanctions of the National Security and Defense Council against Novynskyi, and then against the current ultimate beneficiaries, the heads of the trust to which the Smart-Holding businesses were transferred. "I agree with the Minister of Finance, who spoke here before me, that there must be state pragmatism. But, unfortunately, so far we see a rather absurd situation in the energy sector. We want and can work. Look at us as Ukrainian business — not as names in the news," Gerasimovich concluded.