Ukraine Did Not Negotiate With Belarus on Electricity Imports

This was stated by the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry.

Ukrainian officials did not negotiate with Belarus representatives on the import of electricity from the Belarusian nuclear power plant, ExPro reported on January 12, citing a response from the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry.

"The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine does not have information on negotiations with the Belarusian side on the prospects for the purchase of electricity, plans for negotiations of Ukrainian officials, and plans of commercial companies to start purchasing electricity from the Belarusian nuclear power plant in 2021," - was said in response to a request from journalists.

Neither government agencies nor enterprises have approached the Ukrainian Embassy in the Republic of Belarus for assistance in such contacts, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry noted. The Foreign Ministry added that Ukraine is guided primarily by "its national interests and commitments in the field of European integration when making decisions on attracting external electricity suppliers."

Ukraine has started importing electricity from Belarus in 2021. According to Interfax-Ukraine, electricity from Belarus was bought by DE Trading LLC and Dneprostal-Energo LLC. Dneprostal-Energo belongs to Ukrainian businessman Viktor Pinchuk, Donbasenergo belongs to businessman and People's Deputy from the Dovira group Maxim Efimov.

According to ExPro, in January 2021, ERU Trading and Energy Trade Group companies also plan to import from Belarus; they got access to the intersections at a monthly auction.

In 2019, MP from European Solidarity, member of the inter-factional deputy association "Energy Independence and Security of Ukraine" Mikhail Bondar said that the import of electricity from Belarus could hide an indirect supply from Russia.