Poland, Slovakia, Romania and Moldova are already importing electricity from Ukraine. Germany could also soon be among the buyers, and the Ukrainian Prime Minister would like to advertise this in Berlin this weekend. The offer is made possible by Russia's war of aggression.
Ukraine wants to support Germany with the delivery of nuclear power on its way out of dependence on Russian energy supplies. "Ukraine is currently exporting its electricity to Moldova, Romania, Slovakia and Poland. But we are quite ready to expand our exports to Germany," said Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Schmyhal. "We have a sufficient amount of electricity in Ukraine thanks to our nuclear power plants."
Schmyhal is expected in Berlin later that day and will be received by Chancellor Olaf Scholz in the Chancellery on Sunday. "I will address that during my visit to Berlin and then also to Brussels," said Schmyhal. Parallel to the Russian invasion at the end of February, the Ukraine, together with the neighboring country of Moldova, disconnected from the former Soviet power grid. Synchronization with the European network took place in mid-March.
Since then, the country has been exporting between 400 and 700 megawatts of electricity to the European Union and Moldova every day. Schmyhal now wants to increase the export quotas for the EU many times over. "That would be very good for both sides. The EU would get more energy and we would get the foreign exchange that we urgently need," said the Prime Minister.
Nuclear power plants of Soviet design with a total capacity of more than 14 gigawatts are operated in the Ukraine. However, six blocks in the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant in Enerhodar have been under Russian control since March. The international community is concerned that hostilities near Europe's largest nuclear power plant could lead to a nuclear catastrophe.
With the Russian invasion, the power consumption in the Ukraine has also fallen massively due to the fighting, the flight movement and the economic slump. This freed up capacities for export.
