Medvedev’s proposal for Ukraine. What Russia wants in exchange for electricity

If it wants to stop having energy problems, Ukraine should recognize Russia’s annexation of 19% of its territory, Dmitry Medvedev, the vice-president of Russia’s Security Council, said on Friday.

Ukraine’s attempts to buy electricity from Europe “will not ensure the desired stability” as it will only lead to higher energy prices in Europe, Medvedev said in a Telegram post, following the massive bombing of Ukrainian energy infrastructure by Russia.

“The path to stabilizing the electricity supply is different. The legitimacy of Russia’s demands within the ‘special military operation’ and its results, reflected in our Constitution, must be recognized. And then the electricity problem will be solved,” Medvedev said in his post, according to The Moscow Times, quoted by Agerpres.

A day ago, the Ukrainian state trader “Energy Company of Ukraine” (JSC Energy Company of Ukraine) purchased for the first time, on a test basis, electricity from Slovakia to “support the Ukrainian energy system in case of a shortage of generating capacity”.

“As a result of the Russian missile attacks and the damage to the energy infrastructure, the risks for the thermally and energetically stable crossing of the cold season have increased significantly,” said the company’s general director, Viktor Butenko.

Russia has been targeting the massive destruction of Ukraine’s energy sector since October 10. Officially, Russian President Vladimir Putin linked these bombings to Moscow’s reaction to the explosion on the bridge over the Kerch Strait, as a result of which a car lane and a railway were damaged, classified as a “terrorist attack” by Moscow and attributed to the Ukrainian special services.

Russia has damaged over 30% of energy installations throughout Ukraine

During the period of attacks with cruise missiles and Iranian drones, Russia damaged over 30% of energy installations throughout Ukraine, according to the quoted source.

According to the national energy company Ukrenergo, the equipment of the main network of the electricity distribution system in the central regions was damaged.

Because of this, energy consumption is restricted in Kyiv and its surroundings, as well as in Chernihiv, Cherkassy and Zhitomir regions. Kirill Tymoshenko, Ukraine’s deputy head of the presidential administration, recommended more drastic blackouts after a nighttime bombing on October 27 that severely damaged a critical power facility.

Russia annexed the regions of Donetsk, Luhansk (east), Zaporozhye and Kherson (south) following so-called “referendums”

Russia annexed the regions of Donetsk, Luhansk (east), Zaporozhye and Kherson (south) following so-called “referendums” that the UN qualified as “illegitimate”. The official annexation ceremony took place on September 30 at the Kremlin with leaders appointed by Moscow in these Ukrainian regions.

After that, four new regions were introduced into the Russian Constitution, but the Russian authorities did not clarify between which borders they annexed them: none of them is fully occupied and controlled by Russian forces. Moreover, since the date of annexation, the area controlled by Russian troops in the four regions has decreased, after the Russian army withdrew in the face of the advance of Ukrainian forces.

In Kyiv, the offer of Medvedev, former president between 2008 and 2012, was considered an acknowledgment by Moscow that it uses attacks on the energy infrastructure for blackmail, according to Unian.