– We are preparing to increase the export of electricity to consumers in the EU. Our exports are not only an opportunity to earn foreign currency, but also to help our partners deal with Russian energy pressures, the Ukrainian president said in his evening address Wednesday.

Russia has sharply cut gas supplies to Europe via the Nord Stream 1 pipeline. The gas is used, among other things, for electricity production.

Zelenskyj said Ukraine had connected its power grid to the European grid despite the ongoing war.

– We will gradually become one of the guarantors of European energy security, thanks to our electricity production, says Zelenskyj.

– Our exports will not only allow us to increase our income in foreign currency, but will also help our partners to withstand Russian energy pressures, he said. According to the president, Ukraine wants to gradually become one of the guarantors of European energy security.

The connection to the European grid in March also allowed Ukraine to disconnect from the electricity grid it shares with Russia and Belarus, thereby making them dependent on Russian grid companies.

Russia presses EU

The gas connection via Nord Stream 1 was recently cut further by Russia and now supplies gas at about one-fifth of its capacity.

Russia’s state-controlled energy giant Gazprom has flagged the cuts, and the Kremlin justified the cuts on July 27 for what they called “technical reasons”.

– We expect to receive the repaired engine from Siemens (Energi) as far back as May, but to this day we have not received this engine, Gazprom Deputy CEO Vitaly Markelov told Rossiya 24 TV on July 27.

European officials have rejected Russia’s apology, accusing Moscow of arming energy supplies and saying there was no technical reason for the outage.

Russia is the world’s second largest oil exporter after Saudi Arabia and the world’s largest exporter of natural gas. Europe imports about 40 percent of its gas and 30 percent of its oil from Russia.