Ukraine Russia Conflict: Ukraine has enough electricity and gas at moment, says energy committee minister

The head of the Ukrainian parliament’s energy committee has reassure the country that energy supplies are secure in the short term. He said Ukraine has enough gas and electricity to meet its needs at the moment, but cautioned that he was less certain it would be able to do so in the late autumn.

“Today, if we talk about gas volumes, we have enough. We consume less gas than is produced and even today gas is pumped into underground storage facilities,” Andriy Herus said. "The same goes for electricity" he further said. 

“There are enough gas and electricity resources in the country" he added. 

Meanwhile, Russia on 24th February launched the war on Ukraine. And, according to the latest updates Vladimir Putin has warned any countries attempting to interfere in Ukraine would be met with a “lightning-fast” response from Moscow. Russia has warned other EU customers may be cut off from Russian natural gas supplies if they refuse to pay in roubles. However, the  White House denounced Russia’s move to cut off energy supplies to Poland and Bulgaria. Press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters at a daily briefing on Wednesday: “Unfortunately this is the type of step, the type of almost weaponising energy supplies that we had predicted that Russia could take in this conflict.” Commenting on this Volodymyr Zelenskiy described Russia’s actions as amounting to “energy blackmail” against Europe in his nightly national address. Zelenskiy said Russia’s decision to cut off gas supplies to Poland and Bulgaria shows “no one in Europe can hope to maintain any normal economic cooperation with Russia”.