Latest news with #Galushchenko
New York Post
07-05-2025
- Business
- New York Post
US, Ukraine can immediately begin capitalizing on mineral deal through natural gas sales: Kyiv's energy minister
The US can start reaping the rewards of the newly inked Ukraine minerals deal almost immediately — thanks to the agreement's inclusion of liquified natural gas sales, Kyiv's energy minister told The Post Wednesday after European nations finally agreed to stop purchasing Russian energy by 2027. The European Union on Tuesday agreed to divest entirely from Russia's oil imports over the next year and a half, which will create an even greater reliance on Ukraine for energy resources that the US can help develop due to President Trump's minerals agreement, Ukrainian Minister of Energy German Galushchenko said Wednesday. The arrangement — which will see the US and Ukraine splitting profits 50/50 from new mining and drilling deals reached via the partnership — is expected to be ratified by Kyiv's parliament on Thursday, after which American and Ukrainian officials can begin drumming up business for the joint fund, he said. Advertisement 4 Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky meets with US President Donald Trump on the sidelines of Pope Francis's funeral at St. Peter's Basilica at The Vatican on April 26, 2025. UKRAINIAN FOREIGN MINISTRY/AFP via Getty Images 'This partnership could really help to produce more gas in Ukraine to back up Europe … to substitute this gap in the market by United States in (liquified natural gas) in Europe, and which is playing more important roles every year, especially when we are talking about the total total ban for Russian energy resources,' Galushchenko said. '(The US-Ukraine deal) gives the possibility to increase production of resources, which is in really demand in the European market — which is a huge market.' Advertisement Unlike some of Ukraine's critical minerals and rare-earth elements that can also be mined as part of the agreement, Galushchenko said Kyiv already knows where its oil and gas deposits are — some of which are far from the front lines and can begin to be extracted anytime. 'We are talking about hundreds of billions of cubic meters of (untapped liquified natural gas),' he explained. What's more, Ukraine already has established routes to distribute gas to the rest of Europe, meaning new businesses looking to tap into Kyiv's resources will be able to sell their products much sooner. 4 Ukraine's Minister of Energy German Galushchenko attends a panel discussion at the Future of Energy Security Summit on April 24, 2025 in London, England. Getty Images Advertisement 'We have a lot of interconnectors with European countries,' he said. 'We transited billions of gas before, and in fact, any production in Ukraine could immediately be an instrument to supply these products to Europe.' While a dollar figure for how much the US can expect to gain from the agreement remained unclear Wednesday, the minerals deal does not cap the amount — meaning that the potential reward could be limitless. The partnership is not limited only to the sale of Ukraine's resources, but also other related business opportunities the US helps attract to the fund, such as new energy storage facilities, he said. 4 An employee turns a valve of a gas installation during a training exercise for handling emergencies at a gas-pumping station on the gas pipeline in the small town Boyarka on April 22, 2015 in the Kiev region. AFP via Getty Images Advertisement Interest in energy storage has grown in Europe since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, when the continent was forced to suddenly scramble for alternative supplies of oil and gas after being heavily reliant on Moscow's. 'After (the war's) impact to the gas markets in Europe, everyone now understands that every country wants to have some gas storage for the winter for the security of supply,' the minister said. Further, American companies could store their own gas in Ukrainian storage facilities in reserves to sell to European countries during times of increased energy demand, Galushchenko said. 4 Volodymyr Zelensky, German Galushchenko and Petro Kotin visit the Khmelnytskyi Nuclear Power Plant, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, near the town of Netishyn, in Khmelnytskyi region, Ukraine February 13, 2025. REUTERS 'That is also huge, huge potential for us, because it could be US LNG in Ukrainian storages, which could be used during the wintertime to provide the energy support supply for European countries,' he said. The idea aligns with Trump's concerns with over-reliance on any one particular country for resources, Galushchenko said, as the US administration has prioritized finding minerals deals with not only Ukraine but also Greenland to combat American over-reliance on adversaries such as China. 'A lot of countries really already went through (over-reliance on Russia,) and (the divestment pledge) is the signal with which they officially confirm that they never, they never will allow this situation again,' he said. 'And it means that it really gives us a huge opportunity.'
Yahoo
27-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Ukraine ‘one step away from nuclear meltdown'
Ukraine has been left 'one step away' from catastrophic nuclear meltdowns because of Russian bombardments of its atomic power stations, the nation's energy minister has warned. Missile attacks on the three nuclear power stations left under Ukrainian control, as well as their associated substations, cables and cooling equipment, are putting Europe at risk of a cloud of nuclear radiation escaping into the atmosphere, according to German Galushchenko, who oversees Ukraine's energy systems. 'Russia has been attacking the substations supplying independent cooling power to the nuclear station. So when there is destruction of these power supplies, the nuclear units go into an emergency shutdown regime,' he said. 'The electricity for cooling then has to be supplied by a reserve diesel generator – but this is dangerous [because reserve generators can fail]. 'We have been one step short of a nuclear meltdown many times now.' Mr Galushchenko's warning came after attending a global energy summit in London last week, where he compared the potential impact of such a meltdown with Japan's nuclear catastrophe of 2011, when an earthquake severed the back-up power lines to the Fukushima nuclear power station. Fukushima's back-up diesel generators were then destroyed by a tsunami linked to the same earthquake, meaning there was no reserve cooling power. The result was an explosion and release of a giant radiation cloud. Mr Galushchenko warned that Russian bombardments of Ukraine's nuclear stations risked triggering exactly the same train of events – and has raised his concerns in confidential warnings to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). He and his staff have even begun holding training exercises to deal with such an event, using weather and wind forecasts to work out which parts of Europe could be affected. 'Each time it depends on, on the humidity and the winds as to how far this cloud of radiation could go, but they include central Europe, Turkey, Romania, Bulgaria, Russia and of course Ukraine. It's a horrible story,' he said. Europe has already experienced two such disasters. An explosion at the Russian-run Chernobyl nuclear power station in Ukraine in 1986 sent a plume of radioactivity across Western Europe including the UK. Rainfall then deposited radioactive dust across upland areas of Wales, Cumbria, Scotland and Northern Ireland, where grazing sheep became so radioactive they were deemed too dangerous to eat. A similar disaster occurred at the UK's own Windscale plant – now renamed Sellafield – in 1957 contaminating much of northern England, and forcing a ban on milk production because it had become radioactive. Ukraine has four nuclear power plants with a total of 15 operating reactors, plus adjacent stockpiles of used fuel rods and other radioactive waste. Two are in the west – Khmelnytskyi and Rivne – while the third is in the South, north of Odesa and nearer the front lines. Zaporizhzhia, the furthest east, has already been captured by the Russians, but is still close to the front lines with multiple reports of drone and artillery attacks around the reactors and waste stores. The IAEA has issued multiple warnings about the risk of a nuclear disaster caused by the Ukraine conflict, reporting drone attacks on the south Ukraine plant and another at Zaporizhzhia that punched a hole in a radioactive waste store. It has also been co-ordinating deliveries of safety equipment from across the EU and the UK in preparation for any disaster, warning two weeks ago: 'At Ukraine's nuclear sites, frequent air raid alarms and the sound of explosions in the distance continued to highlight persistent risks to nuclear safety.' On Thursday, Rafael Grossi, the IAEA director general, issued a further warning. 'What was once virtually unimaginable – evidence of military action in the vicinity of a major nuclear facility – has become a near daily occurrence and a regular part of life at Europe's largest nuclear power plant,' he said. 'From a nuclear safety perspective, this is clearly not a sustainable situation. We are doing everything we can to prevent a nuclear accident during this tragic war,' Mr Galushchenko has told the IAEA that Russia's attacks are setting the stage for a European-wide nuclear catastrophe – and that such an event would also risk killing off any hopes of a renaissance for nuclear energy in Europe. 'I have discussed this many times with the IAEA's board of governors where there is a Russian delegate also present, but the Russians always say that nuclear power stations are legitimate targets,' he said. 'We are here [in London] to discuss the global renaissance of the nuclear industry because it is low-carbon energy. But if an accident like this happens it could stop the renaissance. Totally stop. 'So this is an issue not just for Ukraine – it's a game of fire which the Russians are playing.' Mr Galushchenko, 51, trained as a lawyer and economist before becoming Ukraine's energy minister in 2021, prior to Russia's invasion. Unlike his boss, Volodymyr Zelensky, he makes a point of wearing immaculate suits to international meetings – but he also has come too close to the conflict for comfort. 'We were visiting a power site for one meeting and delayed the time by half an hour [for security reasons] and the venue was hit by a missile. We were so lucky,' he said. 'The Russians mostly use ballistic missiles, and there is very short time between launching and impact – they are very quick. So there is often no chance to run.' Others have not been so lucky. 'We have had more than 160 of our energy staff killed and more than 300 wounded, when they are doing their jobs,' Mr Galushchenko added. 'The latest tactic is they attack, wait for us to start repairs and then attack a second time in the same place, knowing that the [civilian] repair brigades are there.' The scale of attacks on Ukrainian energy infrastructure is huge. Since 2022 Russia has seized 18 gigawatts (GW) of Ukraine's original 58GW of power generation capacity. This includes six thermal power plants as well as Zaporizhzhia, which produced 6GW before the war forced it to shut down. Missile and drone attacks have also destroyed the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant, near the southern city of Dnipro. Targeted shelling of critical energy infrastructure, which began in the autumn of 2022, means more than 63,000 pieces of energy equipment have been destroyed or damaged including all major high-voltage substations. During the winter of 2022 and early 2023, an average of 3.3m households were without electricity, prompting the UK and Nato allies to send the country thousands of power generators. Such responses have halted the widespread blackouts but the attacks on energy infrastructure are relentless. Compared to the crisis faced by Ukraine and Mr Galushchenko, the problems for the UK – and Ed Miliband, the Energy Secretary, in particular – may seem trivial. But he warns that this could change. Britain, he points out, is massively reliant on a complex network of subsea pipelines and cables. One pipeline alone, the Langeled, connecting Norway to the UK, brings up to a quarter of the UK's gas supplies. For electricity, a network of nine interconnectors bring up to 22pc of our power from European neighbours. Mr Galushchenko warned that an increase in tensions could prompt Russia to attack any of these covertly, leaving the UK instantly at risk of blackouts and gas shortages. 'Russia always uses energy as a weapon. That's obvious from history – it goes back to Soviet Union times,' he said. The energy minister was in the UK with two key messages. His first is a plea to keep the pressure on Russia by maintaining sanctions and not allowing Putin's regime back into the energy sector. His second request is for Britain to help rebuild Ukraine, saying it had already helped greatly by supplying 1,000 generators when war was declared, as well as uranium to keep its reactors fuelled. 'One day this war will be over and we will be thinking about the recovery,' he said. 'That would probably be the biggest rebuilding since the Second World War. And we want British companies to help us rebuild. 'The countries which stayed with Ukraine from the beginning should come first.' Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
Telegraph
27-04-2025
- Politics
- Telegraph
Ukraine ‘one step away from nuclear meltdown', warns energy minister
Ukraine has been left 'one step away' from catastrophic nuclear meltdowns because of Russian bombardments of its atomic power stations, the nation's energy minister has warned. Missile attacks on the three nuclear power stations left under Ukrainian control, as well as their associated substations, cables and cooling equipment, are putting Europe at risk of a cloud of nuclear radiation escaping into the atmosphere, according to German Galushchenko, who oversees Ukraine's energy systems. 'Russia has been attacking the substations supplying independent cooling power to the nuclear station. So when there is destruction of these power supplies, the nuclear units go into an emergency shutdown regime,' he said. 'The electricity for cooling then has to be supplied by a reserve diesel generator – but this is dangerous [because reserve generators can fail]. 'We have been one step short of a nuclear meltdown many times now.' Mr Galushchenko's warning came after attending a global energy summit in London last week, where he compared the potential impact of such a meltdown with Japan's nuclear catastrophe of 2011, when an earthquake severed the back-up power lines to the Fukushima nuclear power station. Fukushima's back-up diesel generators were then destroyed by a tsunami linked to the same earthquake, meaning there was no reserve cooling power. The result was an explosion and release of a giant radiation cloud. Mr Galushchenko warned that Russian bombardments of Ukraine's nuclear stations risked triggering exactly the same train of events – and has raised his concerns in confidential warnings to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). He and his staff have even begun holding training exercises to deal with such an event, using weather and wind forecasts to work out which parts of Europe could be affected. 'Each time it depends on, on the humidity and the winds as to how far this cloud of radiation could go, but they include central Europe, Turkey, Romania, Bulgaria, Russia and of course Ukraine. It's a horrible story,' he said. Playing with fire Europe has already experienced two such disasters. An explosion at the Russian-run Chernobyl nuclear power station in Ukraine in 1986 sent a plume of radioactivity across Western Europe including the UK. Rainfall then deposited radioactive dust across upland areas of Wales, Cumbria, Scotland and Northern Ireland, where grazing sheep became so radioactive they were deemed too dangerous to eat. A similar disaster occurred at the UK's own Windscale plant – now renamed Sellafield – in 1957 contaminating much of northern England, and forcing a ban on milk production because it had become radioactive. Ukraine has four nuclear power plants with a total of 15 operating reactors, plus adjacent stockpiles of used fuel rods and other radioactive waste. Two are in the west – Khmelnytskyi and Rivne – while the third is in the South, north of Odesa and nearer the front lines. Zaporizhzhia, the furthest east, has already been captured by the Russians, but is still close to the front lines with multiple reports of drone and artillery attacks around the reactors and waste stores. The IAEA has issued multiple warnings about the risk of a nuclear disaster caused by the Ukraine conflict, reporting drone attacks on the south Ukraine plant and another at Zaporizhzhia that punched a hole in a radioactive waste store. It has also been co-ordinating deliveries of safety equipment from across the EU and the UK in preparation for any disaster, warning two weeks ago: 'At Ukraine's nuclear sites, frequent air raid alarms and the sound of explosions in the distance continued to highlight persistent risks to nuclear safety.' On Thursday, Rafael Grossi, the IAEA director general, issued a further warning. 'What was once virtually unimaginable – evidence of military action in the vicinity of a major nuclear facility – has become a near daily occurrence and a regular part of life at Europe's largest nuclear power plant,' he said. 'From a nuclear safety perspective, this is clearly not a sustainable situation. We are doing everything we can to prevent a nuclear accident during this tragic war,' Mr Galushchenko has told the IAEA that Russia's attacks are setting the stage for a European-wide nuclear catastrophe – and that such an event would also risk killing off any hopes of a renaissance for nuclear energy in Europe. 'I have discussed this many times with the IAEA's board of governors where there is a Russian delegate also present, but the Russians always say that nuclear power stations are legitimate targets,' he said. 'We are here [in London] to discuss the global renaissance of the nuclear industry because it is low-carbon energy. But if an accident like this happens it could stop the renaissance. Totally stop. 'So this is an issue not just for Ukraine – it's a game of fire which the Russians are playing.' Relentless attacks Mr Galushchenko, 51, trained as a lawyer and economist before becoming Ukraine's energy minister in 2021, prior to Russia's invasion. Unlike his boss, Volodymyr Zelensky, he makes a point of wearing immaculate suits to international meetings – but he also has come too close to the conflict for comfort. 'We were visiting a power site for one meeting and delayed the time by half an hour [for security reasons] and the venue was hit by a missile. We were so lucky,' he said. 'The Russians mostly use ballistic missiles, and there is very short time between launching and impact – they are very quick. So there is often no chance to run.' Others have not been so lucky. 'We have had more than 160 of our energy staff killed and more than 300 wounded, when they are doing their jobs,' Mr Galushchenko added. 'The latest tactic is they attack, wait for us to start repairs and then attack a second time in the same place, knowing that the [civilian] repair brigades are there.' The scale of attacks on Ukrainian energy infrastructure is huge. Since 2022 Russia has seized 18 gigawatts (GW) of Ukraine's original 58GW of power generation capacity. This includes six thermal power plants as well as Zaporizhzhia, which produced 6GW before the war forced it to shut down. Missile and drone attacks have also destroyed the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant, near the southern city of Dnipro. Targeted shelling of critical energy infrastructure, which began in the autumn of 2022, means more than 63,000 pieces of energy equipment have been destroyed or damaged including all major high-voltage substations. During the winter of 2022 and early 2023, an average of 3.3m households were without electricity, prompting the UK and Nato allies to send the country thousands of power generators. Such responses have halted the widespread blackouts but the attacks on energy infrastructure are relentless. UK vulnerabilities Compared to the crisis faced by Ukraine and Mr Galushchenko, the problems for the UK – and Ed Miliband, the Energy Secretary, in particular – may seem trivial. But he warns that this could change. Britain, he points out, is massively reliant on a complex network of subsea pipelines and cables. One pipeline alone, the Langeled, connecting Norway to the UK, brings up to a quarter of the UK's gas supplies. For electricity, a network of nine interconnectors bring up to 22pc of our power from European neighbours. Mr Galushchenko warned that an increase in tensions could prompt Russia to attack any of these covertly, leaving the UK instantly at risk of blackouts and gas shortages. 'Russia always uses energy as a weapon. That's obvious from history – it goes back to Soviet Union times,' he said. The energy minister was in the UK with two key messages. His first is a plea to keep the pressure on Russia by maintaining sanctions and not allowing Putin's regime back into the energy sector. His second request is for Britain to help rebuild Ukraine, saying it had already helped greatly by supplying 1,000 generators when war was declared, as well as uranium to keep its reactors fuelled. 'One day this war will be over and we will be thinking about the recovery,' he said. 'That would probably be the biggest rebuilding since the Second World War. And we want British companies to help us rebuild. 'The countries which stayed with Ukraine from the beginning should come first.'
Yahoo
07-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Russia bombards Ukraine's power and gas facilities
Russia launched a series of rocket and drone attacks on Ukraine overnight, targeting energy facilities, Ukrainian authorities said early on Friday. Ukrainian Energy Minister German Galushchenko said on Facebook that power and gas infrastructure in several regions had been impacted. "Rescue workers and electricians are working to resolve the situation where possible," Galushchenko said. The Ukrainian air defence reported that Kalibr guided missiles, launched from ships in the Black Sea, had been used. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky later reported on Telegram that Russia had launched nearly 70 missiles at Ukraine, causing damage in the Odessa, Poltava, and Ternopil regions. Officials said at least five people were injured in the eastern city of Kharkiv. Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov said on Telegram that both an infrastructure facility and a nearby residential building were struck. Terekhov said that rescue workers were searching for more victims under the rubble of the partially collapsed apartment building, adding that six people had been rescued so far. The western region of Ternopil also saw damage from the attack, with gas supply disruptions reported. However, no fatalities or injuries were reported in the region, military governor Vyacheslav Nehoda said on Telegram. Ukraine has been defending itself against Russia's full-scale invasion for more than three years. During this time, Russia has systematically targeted Ukraine's energy infrastructure, destroying more than half of the country's electricity generation capacity. Kremlin warns EU defence plan will not go unanswered Meanwhile, in response to the European Union's newly announced rearmament initiative, Russia has signalled plans to bolster its own defence. "All this militarization is directed primarily against Russia," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Friday, according to the Russian news agency Interfax. Moscow views the EU's initiative as a potential threat and will take necessary steps to safeguard its security, he added. The EU's decision to ramp up military capabilities came during an emergency summit on Thursday. A key proposal discussed was the ReArm Europe plan, introduced by the European Commission earlier this week, which aims to mobilize nearly €800 billion ($868 billion) to beef up EU defences.
Yahoo
07-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Russia bombards Ukraine's power and gas facilities
Russia launched a series of rocket and drone attacks on Ukraine overnight, targeting energy facilities, Ukrainian authorities said early on Friday. Ukrainian Energy Minister German Galushchenko said on Facebook that power and gas infrastructure in several regions had been impacted. "Rescue workers and electricians are working to resolve the situation where possible," Galushchenko said. The Ukrainian air defence reported that Kalibr guided missiles, launched from ships in the Black Sea, had been used. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky later reported on Telegram that Russia had launched nearly 70 missiles at Ukraine, causing damage in the Odessa, Poltava, and Ternopil regions. Officials said at least five people were injured in the eastern city of Kharkiv. Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov said on Telegram that both an infrastructure facility and a nearby residential building were struck. Terekhov said that rescue workers were searching for more victims under the rubble of the partially collapsed apartment building, adding that six people had been rescued so far. The western region of Ternopil also saw damage from the attack, with gas supply disruptions reported. However, no fatalities or injuries were reported in the region, military governor Vyacheslav Nehoda said on Telegram. Ukraine has been defending itself against Russia's full-scale invasion for more than three years. During this time, Russia has systematically targeted Ukraine's energy infrastructure, destroying more than half of the country's electricity generation capacity. Kremlin warns EU defence plan will not go unanswered Meanwhile, in response to the European Union's newly announced rearmament initiative, Russia has signalled plans to bolster its own defence. "All this militarization is directed primarily against Russia," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Friday, according to the Russian news agency Interfax. Moscow views the EU's initiative as a potential threat and will take necessary steps to safeguard its security, he added. The EU's decision to ramp up military capabilities came during an emergency summit on Thursday. A key proposal discussed was the ReArm Europe plan, introduced by the European Commission earlier this week, which aims to mobilize nearly €800 billion ($868 billion) to beef up EU defences.
