Why energy infrastructure matters for Ukraine’s war, and its peace

Ukraine’s energy network, which includes Europe’s biggest nuclear power plant and largest gas storage system, has played a significant role since Russia’s full-scale invasion began in 2022. With major assets destroyed or captured, tens of billions in investment needed, and outsiders seeking access to lucrative oil and critical minerals, it could end up key to the country’s future.
03 June 2025 at 8h00
Energy
A soldier in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, May 2023. Dmytro Smolienko/Ukrinform/SIPA
By Kira Taylor

Ukraine’s energy system has been in the firing line since the full-scale Russian invasion of 2022. But to rebuild and secure investment, Kyiv needs attacks on its energy system to stop.

The two sides agreed to a 30-day halt to attacks on energy infrastructure in March – though the jury’s still out on how effective it was.

It’s too early to say what will happen in peace talks, of which a second round took place in Istanbul on 2 June.…

Further reading

‘If need be, we will go it alone’: EU Sanctions Envoy David O’Sullivan on the Russian oil price cap, post-Trump ‘If need be, we will go it alone’: EU Sanctions Envoy David O’Sullivan on the Russian oil price cap, post-Trump
Interview

‘If need be, we will go it alone’: EU Sanctions Envoy David O’Sullivan on the Russian oil price cap, post-Trump

As the EU prepares its eighteenth package of restrictive measures on Russia, David O’Sullivan — the former European Commission Secretary-General and EU ambassador to the US who was appointed EU Sanctions Envoy in January 2023 — discusses the bid to make oil exports ‘more expensive, more complicated, less profitable,’ the security issues posed by oil tankers in the Russian shadow fleet, and the ‘conflicting noises’ that now come from the US.
Russian fuels
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EU-US relations
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Baltic Sea infrastructure
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Russia sanctions
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Energy prices

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