Yaroslav Demchenkov, Deputy Minister of Energy of Ukraine, participated in the webinar “Energy in Europe – the new normal?” held in Vienna. Participants included energy counsellors from embassies of various countries, heads of Austrian companies and their associations, and members of the Austro-American Society (AAS). The participants discussed the situation on the European energy markets, in particular the gas market, ways to reduce Europe’s dependence on russian energy sources and energy security issues in the context of russia’s war against Ukraine.

“russian gas can be replaced – we saw this last winter in Germany. It can and should be replaced in Austria as well, without damaging the economy, if we use the existing infrastructure. It is necessary to develop and implement a solution to eliminate dependence on russian gas,” said Yaroslav Demchenkov.

According to Yaroslav Demchenkov, one such solution could be for Germany to build LNG terminals in the Lubmin area and connect them to the OPAL and EUGAL gas pipelines. Ukraine’s underground gas storage facilities should become an integral part of the EU’s gas supply security architecture. Already, Ukraine is modelling the reconstruction of its energy sector to strengthen the resilience of the entire European energy system after the war.

“Ukraine has the potential to replace russia as an energy supplier. But with one important difference: it will be clean energy that does not have a negative impact on the climate. Today, our efforts are focused on turning Ukraine into a European energy hub. We have an extensive gas transmission system and the largest underground storage facilities in Europe. There is only one way – to completely abandon russian energy sources and exclude russia from the future energy system of Europe,” stressed Yaroslav Demchenkov.