Russia is waging a total war, and one of its elements is the destruction of Ukrainian infrastructure to make it impossible for large cities to function, first of all. These crimes are purposefully destroying the Ukrainian energy industry with the intention of reaching such a level when internal problems in this sector will be critical, which, our enemies believe, will create the country’s readiness to capitulate and internal discontent.
Does the Ukrainian government have a crisis action plan to strengthen the energy sustainability of the nation in these conditions? Valeriy Chaly, Chairman of the Board of Ukraine Crisis Media Center, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary, says that he, as an ordinary Ukrainian, does not know of such plans.
“What should be done now? What is the ratio of strategic projects that are quite expensive for future energy development and immediate actions for this winter, because we have to get through this critical moment?” – these were the questions the diplomat asked when opening the expert discussion “Energy sustainability of Ukraine in conditions of total war: priorities and key tasks”.
He was surprised by two statements that came out almost simultaneously. President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy reaffirmed the need to provide a gigawatt of additional capacity by the end of the year, while against this background, the head of the Cabinet of Ministers, Denys Shmyhal, announced the development of a special system for Ukrainians to procure firewood.
“Our internal capabilities are limited and we need to build a realistic and understandable model now. What kind of support do we ask for? How much support do we need? In what areas and through what mechanisms? I have no answers to these questions,” Valeriy Chaly admitted.
Yuriy Kostenko, Minister of Environmental Protection and Nuclear Safety of Ukraine (1995-1998), representative of Ukraine in the IAEA Board of Governors (1995), recalled that Russia had used the energy leverage against Ukraine since it declared its independence. He was an MP from 1990, worked in the energy committee of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine in four convocations, and remembers all the discussions on Ukraine’s energy strategy.
“The policy of an independent state should have started with solving the issue of energy supply. We were almost totally dependent on energy supplies from Russia – 100% of nuclear fuel, 80% of oil and gas, and on the other hand, Ukraine has one of the largest uranium deposits in Europe. The same applies to oil and gas.
However, unfortunately, the issue of energy supply was never implemented in the legislature in the form of certain laws, nor in the actions of governments. Therefore, all these years of independence, Ukraine has been dependent on Russia for energy,” the politician said.
Yuriy Kostenko considers that the most shameful period in this regard was the period of the beginning of the large-scale aggression against Ukraine, when it was immediately clear that Russia would destroy the energy infrastructure. Nevertheless, the Ukrainian state has not developed a strategy for a new energy policy in the conditions of continuous destruction of the energy infrastructure, and now we only hear from the government, MPs, and experts that we are heading for a catastrophe. At the same time, no one from the Ukrainian authorities offers a clear and effective plan that would minimize all these threats.
Speaking about what measures are needed to equalize the situation in the energy sector, Lana Zerkal, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine in 2014-2019, divided them into two groups.
“The first group is for this winter. We need a band-aid approach to get us through this winter. And we need it in order to ensure that our communities have functioning critical infrastructure that will allow us to get warm water in winter and avoid crisis situations, because we all still remember Alchevsk,” she explained.
This requires a separate appeal from the government or from our donors to the international organizations of the UN structure to ensure that they provide this emergency mechanism and supply as many low-power generating capacities as possible for this winter and ensure their installation, financing, repair and maintenance.
“All this is required to prevent a repeat of last winter’s situation when many generators for hospitals and schools were brought, however, they remained unconnected, because in order to connect them, it is necessary to make a project, implement it and then ensure their maintenance . Any machinery needs maintenance and provision with diesel oil and other fuels. There is no resource for this in the communities – neither professional nor financial,” Lana Zerkal stressed.
As for the more distant perspective, there are already comprehensive solutions that have been worked out at the level of the Kyiv region. Low-power generation and provision of critical generation in communities remains almost the only way to build sustainability, and this sustainability can be built in 3-5 years, the expert believes.
Continuing on the topic, Oleksandr Dombrovskyi, the Chairman of the Board of the 100% RE Ukraine platform, emphasized the fact that such equipment should be amassed in local communities where there are local self-government bodies, because the heating season begins in three months.
“What the state should do today is to remove any barriers and any tax burdens on the import of innovative power engineering equipment. And today we are talking about power storage systems, about their integration into existing systems, into the energy system of Ukraine. Today we are talking about the purchase of cogeneration units, which can be installed in every place in every settlement at every enterprise. Using natural gas, such units will generate and supply electric power and heat. This is a huge amount of work, and for that, I understand, we have the Ministry of Regional Policy, which should organize this work at least to support local self-government bodies and regional authorities, help create institutional and financial incentives and motivators,” emphasized the Chairman of the Board of 100 % RE Ukraine platform.