After Russian airstrikes devastated Kharkiv's power infrastructure in spring 2024, restoring electricity became a national priority for Ukraine and a key focus of international aid.
Written by Olena Klymenko | Gwara Media
In the spring of 2024, the Russian military conducted a series of mass airstrikes on Kharkiv, which led to the near destruction of the city's and surrounding region’s power infrastructure.
Residential neighborhoods, hospitals, businesses, and critical objects were left without electricity and heat. The consequences of these attacks were immense. Currently, Kharkiv and Kharkiv Oblast are supplied with electricity from other Ukrainian regions.
The repair and reconfiguring of the region’s power infrastructure became not only one of national priorities, but also one of the directions of international aid to Ukraine. Countries of the European Union responded to the crisis via providing Kharkiv with finances and equipment to help restore the city’s power capacity.
Ukraine Energy Support Fund
In 2022, under the initiative of the European Commission and Energy Community Secretariat, the independent executive institution of the Energy Community, an organization based in Vienna, Ukraine Energy Support Fund was created. Its goal was—and is—to mobilize financial resources and material help for the urgent restoration of energy infrastructure in Ukraine.
The fund is financed by donations from EU countries, international financial institutions, and the private sector. As of 2024, Germany, France, Italy, Sweden, Denmark, the Netherlands, and other EU countries have provided aid to Ukraine through this fund. Many of these countries use the fund to implement programs designed to help Kharkiv’s energy system and the municipal workers who maintain it.
For instance, Germany sent mobile elevator platforms to Ukraine in April 2024 to support repair workers who restore the power infrastructure in the Kharkiv region.
What EU countries help Kharkiv power infrastructure
Germany
Germany remains the main supplier of energy equipment to Ukraine. Since the beginning of 2024, the country has sent over 160 humanitarian aid cargo shipments for the energy sector, amounting to about 2,000 tons of equipment. These shipments included transformers, generators, electrical cables, and other equipment critical for restoring the power networks.
Ukraine also signed an agreement with the German KfW bank to finance modernization of Ukraine’s energy sector. Germany sent 48 solar panels to Kharkiv, which were installed in the communities that suffered the most from Russian occupation and attacks in 2023—after a winter that was also full of strikes on Ukraine’s energy grid. Currently, Germany is one of the main donors to the Energy Support Fund, having provided €225 million to aid Ukraine’s power infrastructure.
France
France is helping to develop decentralized energy infrastructure in Ukraine and has already dedicated €5.7 million to the Ukraine Energy Support Fund. In addition, France has provided Ukraine with 243 tons of energy equipment, including 140 power generators, illumination devices, automatic power switches, and convectors.
“Ukraine and France are constantly strengthening collaboration in the energy sector. We are receiving significant support from France, and together, we see future prospects, particularly in developing partnerships within the area of atomic energy,” said Ukraine’s energy minister, Herman Halushko.
In June 2024, France transferred 13 generators that provide power reserves for Kharkiv’s boiler rooms. The Mayor of the city, Ihor Terekhov, stated that this help is essential for the city’s preparation for the cold season.
Poland
Poland was one of Ukraine's most important partners in the energy sector from the start of Russia’s all-out war. From May 2022 to April 2023, Poland transferred 12 cargo shipments to Ukraine, amounting to 174 tons of equipment, including generators, transformers, isolators, and emergency power supply systems.
Back in the spring of 2023, Polish charity Fundacja Współpracy Polsko Ukraińskiej “U-Work” sent out a powerful generator to one of the Kharkiv city hospitals that “helped the hospitals work non-stop during blackouts.”
Apart from that, after the Russian strikes on the Ukrainian energy system in August of 2024, Poland was one of the countries that urgently supplied electricity to Ukraine to compensate for the deficit in the power infrastructure.
Lithuania
Lithuania actively supports Ukraine. In July 2024, it provided 170 cargo shipments of energy equipment weighing over 3,000 tons, including autotransformers, backup power plants, and solar panels. This equipment will enable the decentralization of power supply in regions damaged by Russian attacks. The Lithuanian government also provided €5 million to Ukraine for building solar panels.
“The equipment provided by Lithuanian companies helps energy workers restore energy infrastructure damaged by Russian attacks and return light and heat to the homes of thousands of Ukrainians,” said Energy Minister Herman Halushko.
Czechia
Czechia focused its aid to Ukraine on supplying the country with cogeneration units for the simultaneous production of heat and electricity. It also sent 20 million korunas to Ukraine to purchase diesel fuel for generators that were sent to Kharkiv and Dnipropetrovsk Oblast.
“Czechia will support Ukraine in its resistance to the Russian aggression, in particular on the energy front,” said the Minister of Industry and Trade of the Czech Republic Jozef Síkela.
Decentralization of Ukraine’s energy system: key to sustainability
Ukraine’s Ministry of Energy is prioritizing the development of a decentralized energy system—one that will allow communities, industries, and businesses to create and maintain additional operational capacity.
Decentralization is meant to strengthen the energy security of Ukraine, which has sustained significant damage due to Russia’s war, said Mykola Kolisnyi, the deputy Energy Minister of Ukraine, during a roundtable discussion called “Decentralized production of electricity in Ukraine.”
The event, which was dedicated to attracting investments for the restoration of the Ukrainian energy system, was organized by the non-governmental organization Razom We Stand. Leading experts from Berlin Economics, Low Carbon Ukraine, and other analytical organizations also participated.
According to Kolisnyk, the development of a decentralized energy system is one of the key directions in Ukraine's energy strategy. The Ministry of Energy outlined its main components:
- Smart networks and distributed generation based on renewable energy.
- Maneuver generation that allows to balance the pressure on the energy system, particularly utilization of hydropower and new technologies within the atomic energy sector.
- Gas generation as the temporary solution that will, until 2050, provide stability of the energy system after the loss of the generating capacity of the coil industry due to the war.
The Ministry of Energy is prioritizing the development of financial investments that will enable communities, local authorities, and municipal companies to develop additional power generation capacity for their cities' needs.
Due to the finances from the European Union, the supply of critically important equipment, and the development of new energy solutions, Kharkiv was able not only to restore electricity but also to make the system more sustainable in the face of “challenges caused by Russian aggression.”
“The European community continues to demonstrate its solidarity and support of Kharkiv Oblast, providing [the region] with the necessary equipment for creating a stable energy supply,” the press office of Kharkiv local military administration told Gwara Media.
In the future, decentralization is supposed to become a key to making Ukraine’s energy infrastructure sustainable and more protected, and collaboration with neighboring European countries for supplying electricity to the country will be able to stabilize the power grid in the regions that need it.
The project is co-financed by the governments of Czechia, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia through Visegrad Grants from the International Visegrad Fund. The mission of the fund is to advance ideas for sustainable regional cooperation in Central Europe.
The project is supported by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Korea.
