Ukraine will double its energy exports to Europe as European Union states face an energy standoff with Russia amid an international gas crisis. The European Union for the Cooperation of Transmission System Operators (ENTSO-E) confirmed on Wednesday that it will increase electricity imports from Ukraine just a month after Kyiv joined the European energy market. Last month, Ukraine’s Energy Minister Herman Halushchenko announced that Europe’s energy system will begin exporting electricity under Ukraine’s transmission system, Ukrenergo. A Belarusian worker on duty at a Yamal-Europe pipeline gas compression station near Nesvizh, about 81 miles southwest of the capital Minsk, Belarus. (AP Photo/Sergei Grits, File/AP Newsroom) UKRAINE EXPORTS EUROPEAN ENERGY MARKET AS KYIV STARTS EXPORTING ELECTRICITY Halushenko this week said Ukraine could begin to help ease Europe’s energy woes after EU states agreed on Tuesday to further cut gas use by 15 percent by next winter. The decision was reportedly taken in an effort to reduce consumption to deal with the fallout should Moscow cut off gas supplies altogether amid increasingly strained Russian-European relations. The move prompted an immediate reaction from Russia as Moscow cut gas supplies through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline to Germany. E.ON, Europe’s largest energy grid operator, rejected requests to shut down the Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline as part of sanctions against Russia for its invasion of Ukraine, the company told the Rheinische Post newspaper. (AP Photo/Dmitry Lovetsky, File/AP Newsroom) RUSSIA’S GAZPROM CUTS NATURAL GAS FLOW TO GERMANY The pipeline – which served as the main supplier of European gas needs from Russia before President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine – saw only a fifth of its gas capacity flow to Germany on Wednesday. Dwindling natural gas supplies have prompted Europe to look for other means to bolster its natural gas reserves ahead of the coming fall and winter months. But officials remain concerned about rising gas prices and the threat of an impending recession. In March, Ukraine applied to join ENTSO-E, and by June, Kyiv was approved to begin exporting energy to Europe, starting with small amounts of electricity to Romania. Ukraine began exporting to Slovakia this month, and Hungary and Moldova are expected to be the next European countries to receive energy imports. Pipes at the disposal facility of the Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline are pictured in Lubmin, northern Germany, on February 15. (AP Photo/Michael Sohn, File/AP Newsroom) CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said this week that Kyiv hopes to become “one of the guarantors of European energy security”. “Our exports will not only allow us to increase our foreign currency income, but also help our partners resist Russian energy pressure,” he added.
