ARCHIV - 07.03.2015, Sachsen-Anhalt, Osterweddingen: Die untergehende Sonne hat den Himmel hinter Hochspannungsleitungen verfärbt. (Zu dpa «Agentur IEA warnt vor Konsequenzen des steigenden Energieverbrauchs») Foto: Jens Wolf/zb/dpa +++ dpa-Bildfunk +++

“Currently, Ukraine exports its electricity to Moldova, Romania, Slovakia and Poland. But we are quite ready to expand our exports to Germany,” Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Schmyhal told the German Press Agency. “We have enough electricity in Ukraine thanks to our nuclear power plants. I will address this during my visit to Berlin and then also to Brussels.”

Schmyhal is expected in Berlin on Saturday and will be received by Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) in the Chancellery on Sunday. Parallel to the Russian invasion at the end of February, the Ukraine, together with the neighboring country of Moldova, disconnected from the former Soviet power grid. Synchronization with the European network took place in mid-March.

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Since then, the country has been exporting between 400 and 700 megawatts of electricity to the European Union and Moldova every day. Schmyhal now wants to increase the export quotas for the EU many times over. “That would be very good for both sides. The EU would get more energy and we would get the foreign exchange that we urgently need,” said the Prime Minister.

Nuclear power plants of Soviet design with a total capacity of more than 14 gigawatts are operated in the Ukraine. However, six blocks in the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant in Enerhodar have been under Russian control since March. The international community is concerned that hostilities near Europe’s largest nuclear power plant could lead to a nuclear accident.