During a working visit to Berlin, Minister of Energy of Ukraine German Galushchenko held a bilateral meeting with State Secretary of the German Federal Chancellery Jörg Kukies.
During the previous meeting in the spring, the parties discussed the importance of imposing sanctions on the russian nuclear industry. This time, German Galushchenko stressed that the door to imposing sanctions on russian nuclear technology was opened by the successful cooperation of the American company Westinghouse with the specialists of the Ukrainian company Energoatom. It resulted in the production of fuel that can replace russian fuel for VVER-440 nuclear reactors and thus displace the russian monopoly in this market. This fuel is already being used at one of the Ukrainian NPPs.
The Minister also stressed that during the full-scale war with russia, Ukraine successfully certified the operator of Ukrainian gas storage facilities in accordance with European rules, which ensured the confidence of foreign customers in Ukrainian storage facilities. To date, European traders have pumped more than 2.4 billion cubic metres of gas into Ukrainian underground gas storage facilities.
The meeting focused on cooperation in the hydrogen sector. The German side expressed interest in projects to develop green hydrogen production and prospects for its transportation to the EU. Possibilities for cooperation in this field with the Slovak and Czech parties are currently being explored.
German Galushchenko and Jörg Kukies stressed the importance of the green transition and the elimination of dependence on russian energy resources and discussed areas of cooperation in the reconstruction of the Ukrainian energy sector.