Ukraine will export electricity for the first time in months after recovering from repeated attempts by Russia to destroy its electricity grid.
Herman Halushchenko, Ukraine’s energy minister, signed a decree allowing electricity exports, which was suspended for greater than six months after Russia began attacking energy infrastructure in October.
Russia’s attempts to shut down Ukraine’s power grid for the winter appear to have failed, the British Ministry of Defense said on Saturday.
“Russia’s campaign to seriously degrade Ukraine’s unified energy system (JES) in the winter of 2022-23 has almost certainly failed,” the agency wrote. “Russia has been carrying out long-range attacks since October 2022, but large-scale attacks have grow to be rare since early March 2023.”
“Ukraine’s energy situation is probably going to improve with the arrival of warmer weather,” the agency continued. “Planning and preparation for next winter has probably already begun.”
The Ministry of Defense also reported that Ukraine managed to find replacements for damaged electrical components, including massive high-voltage transformers that weigh at the very least 100 tons.
Ukrenergo, the company that operates Ukraine’s electricity grid, said on Saturday that Russia had fired greater than 1,200 drones and missiles at its facilities since the start of the war, describing the situation as the largest attempt to destroy a European country’s power grid. reported the BBC.
“The toughest winter has passed,” Halushchenko said in an announcement published Friday on the energy ministry’s website. “The following step is to start exporting electricity, which can allow us to raise additional funds for the crucial reconstruction of the damaged and damaged energy infrastructure.”
Ukraine can currently export up to 400 megawatts to the European Union at a time.
In June, the country hoped to usher in 1.5 billion euros, or about $1.64 billion, from energy exports by the end of 2022.