MINSK, 26 November (BelTA) – Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy believes it is right to import electricity from Belarus if Ukraine experiences electricity shortages, TASS reports.
At a press conference in Kiev Volodymyr Zelenskyy said: “If we lack electricity, we have to import it. And you [some Ukrainian TV channels] show that we can't import electricity from Belarus. Why? What if some city lacks electricity? How can we not import it? What else can we do? We are not getting coal from Russia.”
Volodymyr Zelenskyy stressed that the state has no other way out but to buy electricity from Belarus. He also accused Ukrainian mass media of waging a media war around this issue.
Representatives of the Ukrainian Energy Ministry were previously quoted as saying that Ukraine will not resume electricity import from Russia and Belarus in November because the country has sufficient coal reserves for heating in winter while power plants have financial capabilities for buying coal, including for importing coal. However, later on the Ukrainian Energy Ministry mentioned that the coal reserves were insufficient. Ukraine resumed electricity import from Belarus on 21 November.
In February Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Dmytro Kuleba said that Ukraine intends to disconnect itself from the Belarusian power grid and the Russian one in order to link up with the European energy system by late 2023.
