The European Union will make every effort to support the energy sector of Ukraine, primarily to provide fuel to its agricultural sector in order to avoid a food crisis, European Commissioner for Energy Kadri Simson assured. “We will support Ukraine in terms of energy. There are many sectors that need support, for example, the agricultural sector. This is very important for Ukrainian farmers. Also, the importance of this issue lies in the fact that African and Middle Eastern countries depend on the state of the agricultural sector in Ukraine. Therefore, we will do everything to supply fuel here to support your economy so that it does not suffer more,” Simson said on the air of the nationwide UA telethon on Monday. She stressed that the EU countries really want to help Ukraine with fuel supplies, including providing funding, but for this, important logistics issues need to be resolved right now. At the same time, Simson pointed out that the EU, dependent on Russian gas, has already done a lot to strengthen its independence from Russian energy carriers, and continues to do so, and takes into account the interests of Ukraine in the search for alternative options. “The European Commission advises all EU members to intensify work to increase their own energy independence, we are looking for alternative directions for the supply of energy carriers for our countries. These are, for example, Azerbaijan, other countries. The world has not come together in Russia,” the European Commissioner noted. “When we discuss this issue with our suppliers, partners, we always take into account the interests of Ukraine,” she stressed.
Ukraine’s power system is operating normally, the availability of the necessary energy resources is fully ensured, the Ministry of Energy reported on its website on Thursday.
According to the ministry, security measures have been strengthened at all facilities, and the stability of the operation of enterprises and grids in the energy sector is being systematically monitored.
“Today, the IPS of Ukraine [Integrated Power System of Ukraine] and the Burshtyn TPP Island are synchronized into one power system, which operates autonomously from Russia and Belarus in a single control unit with the power system of Moldova,” the ministry recalled.
According to the report, the Ministry of Energy is currently setting itself the key task of providing Ukrainians, and primarily the Ukrainian military, with electrical and thermal energy.
The situation on the European energy market is unable to influence the certification of the Nord Stream 2 operating company as an independent network operator, German Ambassador to Russia Geza Andreas von Geyr said in an interview with Interfax.”The conclusion of the certification process is required for the pipeline to begin commercial operations, irrespective of the situation on the European energy market. We expect Gazprom to continue to fulfil all contractual obligations towards Europe, particularly in relation to gas transit through Ukraine,” von Geyr said.As reported earlier, the German Federal Network Agency started to process the application from the Nord Stream 2 operating company as an independent operator on September 8. The processing has been suspended as Bundesnetzagentur decided that a subject of its regulation could be only a German subsidiary of the Swiss-based Nord Stream 2 AG, which should be the owner and operator of the German part of the pipeline. The Polish company PGNiG and the Ukrainian opponents of the Project, Naftogaz and Gas Transmission System Operator of Ukraine, have received access to the certification process. The application processing deadline has been moved to the middle of 2022, which means Europe cannot count on gas supply through the new pipeline in the winter season of 2021/22.”The certification process for Nord Stream 2 is being conducted by the independent German regulator, the Bundesnetzagentur, in strict accordance with the provisions of the European Gas Directive. Interested parties can raise their views within that legal framework and have their voices heard. Politically, we have made a commitment that this pipeline must not be used to exert pressure on Ukraine. That is why we are campaigning to see reliable, long-term, contractually agreed gas supplies and transit agreements for Ukraine,” von Geyr said.
Prime Minister of Ukraine Denys Shmyhal met with Prime Minister of Sweden Stefan Leuven on October 13 as part of a working trip to the Kingdom of Sweden, where the parties discussed the development of bilateral relations between the countries.
The press service of the government said on Wednesday evening that Shmyhal expressed gratitude to the Swedish side for organizing the International Forum on Holocaust Remembrance and Combating Anti-Semitism, as well as for Sweden’s participation in the inaugural summit of the Crimea Platform in August this year.
He also noted the support provided by the Swedish government for the implementation of the decentralization reform and thanked for the assistance provided through the Swedish Radiation Safety Authority for Ukrainian nuclear power plants.
“Diversification of nuclear fuel sources is one of our priorities in the context of ensuring energy security. In addition, Ukraine has met all the technical conditions for joining its integrated power system to the European ENTSO-E network. For us, this will be an important step towards energy independence,” Shmyhal said.
The parties also discussed issues of cooperation in the field of waste disposal and recycling.
The head of government said that investments and an increase in investment activity can become a driver for the development of economic relations between the countries. He urged Swedish companies to continue implementing joint projects in Ukraine, in particular taking advantage of the law on the so-called “investment nannies”.
Shmyhal also said that Ukraine is ready to further develop cooperation in the field of information technology, in particular in terms of digitalization and strengthening cyber security.
On Wednesday, October 13, Prime Minister of Ukraine Denys Shmyhal and Prime Minister of Slovakia Eduard Heger met within a working visit to Malmö(Kingdom of Sweden), where they discussed relevant issues of bilateral relations.
According to the Cabinet of Ministers press service, during the meeting, Shmyhal said that Ukraine highly appreciates the support provided by Slovakia in matters of protecting sovereignty and territorial integrity.
“We count on the support of Slovakia in countering the Nord Stream 2 operator in an attempt to bypass the standard certification requirements of the European Union,” the head of the Ukrainian government said.
The sides also discussed issues of gas transportation, development of electricity and hydropower, renewable energy sources and others.
“Denys Shmyhal also said that Ukraine is looking forward to holding the fifth meeting of the Ukrainian-Slovak joint commission on economic, industrial and scientific-technical cooperation and other intergovernmental commissions by the end of the year, as this will give new incentives to strengthen partnership between the countries,” the Cabinet of Ministers said.
The sides also agreed to hold the next meeting in Uzhgorod soon.
Ukraine will begin to implement an energy saving program next year, about UAH 300 billion is currently needed for implementation, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said.
“This program [on energy saving] has been developed in absolute detail […] We see that this program can be implemented, and we will definitely implement it with the support of specialists and financial assistance from the European Union. In any case, we will start doing this next year. We cannot wait when our neighbor [Russia] threatens us with a shutdown or reduction in gas volumes,” Zelensky said during a briefing following the 23rd Ukraine-EU summit with President of the European Council Charles Michel and President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen.
He said that Ukraine should be truly energetically independent.
According to Zelensky, Ukraine currently needs about UAH 300 billion to implement this program.
