Ukraine's leading English-language newspaper since 1995

The tragedy of the Dnipropetrovsk natural gas explosion showed that Ukraine suffers from a Soviet-era infrastructure as well as Soviet mindsets

dence Ukraine still suffers from an inefficient and often deadly Soviet-era infrastructure. But responses to the tragedy show that officials and businessmen still suffer from a Soviet mindset. The central government was right to step in with Hr 94 million (nearly $19 million) and everyone who made donations, from Lviv to Luhansk, should be commended.

But President Viktor Yushchenko had to personally go to Dnipropetrovsk and shame local officials and owners of the company Dniprogaz before they even suggested bearing responsibility for the tragedy.

In the end, Ukrainian-born Russian billionaire Viktor Vekselberg said that his structures would pay out $100,000 to each of the families of the 23 people who perished in the tragedy, while surviving victims (18 of whom were still in hospital on Oct. 22) would split an additional $5 million, according to Ukrainian media reports.

The president also had to ask the businessman to restore natural gas service to all 5,000 buildings that had their supplies cut off as a result of the accident. Yushchenko is right in talking about utility concessions to businesses – market players will be more interested in making utilities efficient and safe, especially if they carry liability.

The country’s opaque energy sector needs greater transparency. Massive profits are earned by obscure offshore entities that feed like parasites on the dilapidated state infrastructure. They rarely re-invest in the Soviet-era gas network.

In the short term, the state should consider breaking up privately-owned monopolies of the energy distribution networks. Instead, investors should be lured to produce more energy in the country and offered the chance to sell it down the chain on a transparent market with bidding, such as seen on energy markets in Europe.

When this happens, and a proper corporate culture is established, the state can tender off management of its natural monopoly infrastructure to private interests capable of managing it better.

The solution is in fixing the system, not providing relief: No matter how big the bandages are, they will not return the lives lost on Oct. 13.