Ukraine Pushes to Secure Gas, Fuel Ahead of Winter

Ukraine is moving to lock in gas supplies, fuel reserves and energy partnerships ahead of winter, with state energy company Naftogaz working to finalize key agreements in July.

President Volodymyr Zelensky outlined the progress on his Telegram channel on Tuesday, saying that Naftogaz CEO Serhiy Koretskyi had reported on inter-company energy negotiations and that agreements are being prepared for July. Separately, Prime Minister Yuliia Svyrydenko briefed on fuel supply volumes and the rollout of regional resilience plans across the country.

“It is important that the Ukrainian government and Naftogaz are absolutely clearly fulfilling their tasks of building a network of additional energy partnerships for Ukraine,” Zelensky said, adding that, this way, Ukraine “will be able to support our state and people this winter and in the long term.”

Energy diplomacy and political priorities

Zelensky said that, based on Svyrydenko’s briefing, some communities are behind schedule on winter preparedness. 

“We will draw conclusions, including personnel ones,” he said.

Zelensky also said political priorities had been identified that could be strengthened at the level of relations with heads of state, pointing to a diplomatic track running alongside the technical energy work. 

He thanked international partners for their readiness to cooperate with Ukraine on equal terms, as the country works to reduce its vulnerability heading into another wartime winter.

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Ukraine to be “more prepared” for winter, DTEK CEO says

Last winter’s near-daily barrages of Russian drones and missiles on Ukrainian energy sites forced rolling power outages, in what many have described as one of the “harshest winters” since the beginning of the war in 2022.

“We will be more prepared, we learnt our lessons from last winter,” Maxim Timchenko, CEO of DTEK, Ukraine’s largest private energy company, told AFP at a conference on Ukrainian reconstruction in Poland. 

“We need to build (a) new energy system in Ukraine, a new generation that is much more resilient. A priority is in renewables, wind, solar, battery storage,” he added.

According to AFP, Ukraine aims to have 27% of all electricity production from renewables by 2030 – up from 11% currently – under a plan adopted in 2024.