Ukraine Locked in Energy War with Russia
Ukrainian power stations have only a fifth of the coal planned for by the government. (Wikimedia Commons)
Ukrainian Deputy Energy Minister Maxim Nemchinov said on November 11 that the country is now locked in an “energy war” with Russia in an interview with 1+1 News. Nemchinov accused Moscow of blocking Kazakhstani imports, hindering coal transportation to Ukraine, and reducing gas transmission capacity.
"Today, we are de-facto in the state of an energy war with Russia… they do everything to make us feel this energy crisis," he said.
His comments echoed the sentiments of Andrey Gerus, head of the Ukrainian Parliament’s energy and public utilities committee, who alleged on November 4 that Russia’s state railway company was blocking the passage of coal-bearing freight trains from Kazakhstan to Ukraine, according to the Kyiv Post.
“All deliveries in November have been blocked,” wrote Gerus in a telegram post.
TASS reports that the Russian Railways company denied Gerus’s accusation, claiming that the company had not imposed any restrictions on coal shipments from Kazakhstan, but rather that Russian and Kazakhstani shippers simply increased their demands for coal.
“There are no artificial obstacles put by Russian Railways to freight traffic from Kazakhstan,” said the company according to TASS. Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Industry and Infrastructure also failed to confirm any direct Russian interference, instead blaming the issues with coal imports on the “workload of infrastructure on the Russian side,” as RT reports.
The Kyiv Post discloses that former Russian opposition lawmaker Illia Ponomaryov, however, believes the blockage of coal trains from Kazakhstan is part of a larger Russian effort to gain influence over Ukraine, as the Ukrainian government will struggle with energy supplies during the winter.
The issues with coal shipments began three days after Russia stopped exporting thermal coal to Ukraine. The Russian Ministry of Economic Development claimed that the cessation of its thermal coal exports stemmed from a rise in domestic demand during the colder months of the year.
TASS reports that the ministry stated Russian companies would still account for more than half of coal supplies —of other coal types—to Ukraine in November. This marks a decrease from 2018 and 2019, when 70 percent of coal imports to Ukraine were sourced in Russia, according to the Kyiv Post.
Six coal-fired power plants across Ukraine have already been forced to find alternatives to Russian coal. As of November 1, Ukrainian power stations had only a fifth of the coal planned for by government schedules, according to RFERL. Ukraine, which is usually a net exporter of electricity, requested emergency imports of over 4,000 megawatt-hours of power from Belarus and Slovakia on November 2.
Ukrainian Energy Minister Herman Haluschenko stated that Ukraine will be able to domestically produce only 7.3 million of the 8.4 million tons of coal needed by Ukrainian coal power plants this winter. Until recent years, almost half of Ukraine’s coal-fired capacity ran on anthracite, a type of coal found in reserves that now fall within Russian-occupied territories, according to the Atlantic Council.