Slovak energy operator severs contract on emergency assistance to Ukraine - Ukrenergo

MOSCOW. March 17 (Interfax) - Ukraine's national energy company Ukrenergo has received an official letter from the Slovak electricity transmission system operator, SEPS, on unilaterally severing an agreement on mutual emergency assistance, and its contractual terms will be permanently terminated in May 2026, Ukrainian media reported citing Ukrenergo's statement.

The Slovak system operator's decision will not affect Ukrainian consumers, Ukrenergo said. "Ukrenergo has used emergency assistance from Slovakia rarely and very limitedly. The last such instance was in January this year," it said.

As reported with reference to the Slovak publication Dennik N, SEPS Chairman of the Board of Directors Martin Magath had announced on March 4 that the company would terminate the contract for emergency electricity supplies to Ukraine.

According to Dennik N, Prime Minister Robert Fico had submitted the request on terminating the agreement with Ukraine, and the Slovak government approved it on March 4.

As reported, Fico had written on social media on February 23 that he would fulfill his promise to cut off emergency electricity supplies to Ukraine if it did not resume oil transit from Russia through the Druzhba pipeline.

Ukrenergo, at whose request SEPS is supposed to provide emergency assistance in line with inter-operator agreements, resorts to emergency assistance from other countries as a way to balance the power system when domestic power generation resources are exhausted.

The capacity limit for imports from EU countries into Ukraine and Moldova has been 2.45 GW since January 3, 2026, a record high for the entire period of Ukraine's synchronization with the European Network of Transmission System Operators for Electricity (ENTSO-E, the continental European grid). Considering that some of the imported capacity goes to Moldova, around 2.1 GW of commercial imports is available for Ukraine.