Ukraine Seeks to Mitigate Europe’s Energy Crisis
Ukrainian President Zelenskyy seeks to make his country the “guarantor of European energy security” through electricity exports. A large part of Ukraine’s energy was not needed because production has come to a standstill amid the war.
“We are preparing to increase our electricity exports to consumers in the European Union,” said the head of state in an evening video message.
“Our export not only allows us to earn foreign exchange but also allows our partners to resist Russian energy pressure,” he said, referring to Russia’s significantly reduced gas supplies. Gas is also used to generate electricity.
Russia’s energy giant Gazprom had reduced deliveries through the Baltic Sea pipeline Nord Stream 1 again this week because of alleged technical problems – this time to 20 per cent of the maximum volume.
“Step by step, we are making Ukraine one of the guarantors of European energy security, precisely through our domestic electric power production,” said Zelenskyy. Fears of energy bottlenecks in the coming months due to reduced Russian gas supplies are growing in Germany and other EU countries.
Ukraine was connected to the European power grid in mid-March. Before the start of the Russian war of aggression against the country, the Ukrainian grid was synchronized with the Russian grid – Ukraine was also dependent on electricity imports from Russia and Belarus.
At the beginning of July, Ukraine began exporting electricity to the EU via Romania. In Ukraine, more than half of the electricity comes from nuclear power.
However, the Russian troops had recently captured the largest nuclear power plant in Enerhodar, a hydroelectric power plant on the Dnipro River and at least two coal-fired power plants. “We will liberate our whole country with the military, diplomatic- and all other available tools,” said Zelenskyy. Looking at the bridge over the Dnipro River in southern Kherson Oblast, which was bombed by Ukrainian forces, the head of state stressed that everything would be rebuilt after the recapture.
Image by President of Ukraine (Flickr)/Attribution Universal (CC0 1.0)
