Ukraine electricity imports soar after Russian attacks

Ukraine’s daily electricity imports reached their highest this year on Tuesday (26 March) after a series of Russian missile strikes on critical infrastructure caused blackouts in many regions, the energy ministry said.

The attacks, the biggest of which came on Friday, have caused major damage to generating and transmission facilities, forcing Kyiv to halt power exports.

Power imports are expected to reach 18,649 megawatt hours (MWh) on Tuesday, up from 14,900 MWh on Sunday, the ministry said in a statement.

According to the statement, Ukraine imported electricity from Romania, Slovakia, Poland, Hungary, and Moldova.

By contrast, Ukraine had exported 3,300 MWh the day before the first wave of Russian attacks on 22 March.

Ukraine has been connected to the European Union’s united grid since the first weeks of Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022. The imports come from Romania, Slovakia, Poland, Hungary and Moldova, the Ukrenergo grid operator told Reuters.

Ukraine, which has an extensive civilian nuclear energy sector, was a net exporter of power before the invasion and subsequent Russian occupation of Europe’s largest nuclear power plant.

‘Serious damage’

In the northeastern border city of Kharkiv and parts of southeastern Zaporizhzhia region, 200,000 residents have gone without electricity since last Friday’s attacks.

“Very serious damage to the power system makes it impossible to connect all people and houses to the grid and there are parts of the city where blackouts last 4-6 hours,” Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov told state television.

“Today underground transport is already working, however … (other) electric transport is not working today in Kharkiv,” he said.

Volodymyr Kudrytskyi, head of Ukrenergo, which operates Ukraine’s transmission lines, told a televised news briefing in Kharkiv the company had a plan to restore power supply.

“It’s still hard to guarantee any timeline, but we’re talking about a period of 7-10 days, maybe two weeks when we can restore normal power supplies to the city. Provided there is no new destruction,” he said.

Emergency power outages have also been introduced in Ukraine’s Black Sea port city of Odesa.

Deputy Odesa governor Serhiy Kropyva told national television 23,000 residents were without electricity as of Tuesday noon while “the transport system was almost completely restored.”

He said the maritime Black Sea transport corridor continued to function despite the attacks.

“Ships leave periodically from all ports located on the territory of the Odesa region,” Kropyva said.

Moscow has said that Ukrainian power facilities are legitimate targets and such attacks are aimed at weakening Kyiv’s military.

It says the latest strikes are retaliation for Ukrainian attacks that overshadowed the re-election of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Ukraine hopes to sign a deal in June to buy two nuclear reactors from Bulgaria as it seeks to compensate for the loss of its vast Russian-occupied six-reactor Zaporizhzhia plant.

(Edited by Georgi Gotev)

Read more with Euractiv