Barges are loaded with grain at the Reni river port on the Danube River in Odesa Oblast, Ukraine, on July 21, 2022. (Sergii Kharchenko / NurPhoto / Getty Images)Three board members of one of Ukraine's largest state-owned shipping companies say that they feel pressured to take actions that are not in the best interest of the company, neglected as they try to fix severe financial, management, and governance issues — but then accused of not having the company's best interests at heart.The board members came forward after the Kyiv Independent revealed in July that Ukraine's parliament would look into the situation at the Ukrainian Danube Shipping Company (UDP) and hold a committee hearing on it, after the company's newly appointed supervisory board sent a letter detailing a severe decline in activity at the company due to mismanagement and chronic corruption.UDP is one of Ukraine's more than 3,000 state-owned enterprises, a legacy of the Soviet command economy, which have frequently been the subject of governance problems and corruption.The company inhabits a strategic spot at the mouth of the Danube river, and owns valuable assets. It became a critical export corridor for Ukrainian grain and iron ore in 2022 after Russia’s months-long blockade of the Black Sea at the start of the full-scale invasion.UDP appointed its first supervisory board in August last year, meant to act as a check on management and safeguard the company's interests. It includes three independents, appointed through a competitive and merit-based process, and two state-appointed members.Nearly a year later, Michael Jorgensen, Dennis Olesen, and Benoit Pleska — all three independent members of the board — told the Kyiv Independent in a joint online interview that they are in an impossible bind.