KIEV, October 22. /TASS/. Ukraine’s Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk has instructed the national operator of nuclear power plants, Energoatom, to speed up completion of power generating units, which are still in the phase of construction, and to reorient cooperation from Russia to the EU at the same time.

“The National Atomic Energy Corporation should step up completion of power-generating units and do this work in cooperation with European companies, not the Russian ones,” Yatsenyuk said at a meeting of the cabinet of ministers.

“The task of completing these power units is on the agenda,” he went on. “This should be done swiftly enough and, first and foremost, with assistance from European partners. We are not with Russia, we are with the Czech Republic, we’ll get a contract with Skoda.”

In 2010, Ukraine and Russia signed an intergovernmental agreement on cooperation in the completion of power units No. 3 and No. 4 at the nuclear plant in the western Khmelnitsky region. The Russian side was expected to rally finance for the project, as well as to build and to commission the power units.

After that, Russia’s Sberbank /Savings Bank/ informed Kiev of its readiness to provide a loan of $ 1 billion for priority works at two generating units of the Khmelnitsky plant. The loan was to be issued against governmental guarantees and the Ukrainian side was to make an investment amounting to no less than 15% of the project’s cost.

In May 2011, Energoatom said it was dissatisfied with a big interest on the loan and in the summer of 2014 its top executives said they would renounce cooperation with Russia at the Khmelnitsky plant.

Ukraine said it had found cooperation with the Czech Republic on the issue to be more lucrative.

There are four nuclear plants with fifteen power units in Ukraine.