Failing to complete Khmelnitsky NPP construction would be catastrophic for Ukraine - energy minister

MOSCOW. June 20 (Interfax) - Failing to complete the construction of power units 3 and 4 of the Khmelnitsky Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) would be catastrophic for Ukraine, Energy Minister German Galushchenko said.

"If Bulgaria doesn't sell two reactor vessels to Ukraine, this would be the worst-case scenario. Failing to complete the Khmelnitsky NPP would be a catastrophe for us. We see a nuclear energy renaissance all over the world [...] The World Bank provides financing. This is an irreversible process, and there'll be no green transition without nuclear power. We have options for ordering the equipment from other countries, but this takes time. It takes at least three to four years to build a reactor vessel," media quoted Galushchenko as saying while taking questions from lawmakers at a parliamentary hearing on Friday.

"The ministry, in cooperation with the IAEA [the International Atomic Energy Agency], has found certain opportunities to prompt Bulgaria to implement the project," Galushchenko said.

As reported, Galushchenko said previously that Bulgaria had not officially refused to sell Ukraine the essential equipment for completing units 3 and 4 of the Khmelnitsky NPP and that Kiev continued to pursue the project and counted on the IAEA's active involvement in that.

Bulgarian Deputy Prime Minister Atanas Zafirov said in April 2025 that the vessels of two VVER-1000 reactors that had been built originally for Bulgaria's Belene NPP and which were a subject of negotiation between Sofia and Kiev would not be sold to Ukraine, as Bulgaria saw them as a key asset and a vital element of its energy independence.