Recently, Russia massively attacked the Ukrainian energy infrastructure. As a result, not only are the reserves for Ukraine running out, but possibly also for the rest of Europe.
Russia has been attacking Ukraine’s energy supply since the beginning of the war. In the past few weeks, however, this has taken on completely new proportions. Instead of easily repairable energy transformers, power plants and underground gas storage facilities are now the focus of Russian attacks. The damage is already significant and there are no alternatives so quickly. This could now also have consequences for the energy supply in the rest of Europe, reports “Politico”.
48 attacks in the last six months
“Our thermal power plants have been attacked 48 times in the last six months, but without a doubt Russia’s attacks in recent weeks have been the worst since the full-scale invasion in 2022,” reports Maxim Timchenko, CEO of the largest private energy company in Ukraine DTEK. Accordingly, his company has already lost almost 80 percent of its energy capacity.
The lack of energy makes it difficult for Ukraine to deter Russian missiles, the report says. However, another aspect is fatal. Last winter, Ukraine offered its storage network to European wholesalers when they were building up stocks in view of the lack of Russian deliveries.
If these capacities are now destroyed, the EU would also face a problem. Just a few weeks ago, Ukraine declared that it would export electricity worth around one million euros to its western neighbors every day. Now the situation has taken a drastic turn as Kiev is using up financial reserves to import energy. The country is struggling to avoid power outages and to drive a defense industry in times of war.
“Ukraine saved Europe’s ass”
“There is enormous pressure, especially in regions like Kharkiv, where all of our key assets have been attacked by missiles, and we are trying to restore as much power as possible while the enemy is making more and more new attacks,” said Volodymyr Kudrytskyi, CEO of the state electricity grid operator Ukrenergo.
The facilities were crucial for Europe last winter as traders stored billions of cubic meters of fuel there in case of shortages. The additional storage capacity gave EU countries easy access to supplies. This allowed companies to store surplus fuel that they might not have been able to store anywhere else – and that they would have had to sell at a cost of up to two billion euros.
“Ukraine saved Europe’s ass,” Aura Sabadus told Politico. She is a gas expert at raw materials information company ICIS. “The tragedy is that the gas they have stored comes from countries that oppose aid to Ukraine, most of it comes from Hungary and Slovakia. And that will ultimately backfire.”
There are now fears that there will no longer be enough gas storage capacity in Europe for next winter.
