-c439b7bd9030ecf9d5a4287dc361ba31.jpg "Photo of Katherina Popilnichenko")
Slovakia’s state-owned electricity system operator, SEPS, has sent a formal letter to Ukrenergo announcing the unilateral termination of their mutual emergency assistance agreement.
The Ukrainian state energy company shared this update via their official Facebook page on March 16, noting that the specific reasons for the cancellation were not provided by the Slovak leadership.
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“The reasons why our colleagues are canceling the agreement remained without explanation from the SEPS management. For its part, NPC Ukrenergo has never allowed any violations of contractual terms with SEPS, acting in the spirit of good neighborliness and respect for the norms of European legislation,” the company stated.
Despite the termination of this specific agreement, Ukrenergo assured that the decision would not negatively impact the stability of Ukraine’s energy grid.
According to the company, emergency assistance from Slovakia was requested rarely and only in very limited amounts. Furthermore, Ukraine will continue to import electricity from Slovakia through commercial suppliers.
The move follows a statement made on February 23 by Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, who claimed that Bratislava stopped electricity supplies because Ukrainian authorities halted oil transit through the Druzhba pipeline.
This disruption occurred following a Russian attack on the pipeline’s infrastructure on January 27.
During that incident, an infrastructure facility in Brody, Lviv region, was damaged as a result of Russiastructure site in western Ukraine, which caused a fire and forced the suspension of technoloa’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Naftogaz reported that the Russian army attacked a critical infrgical processes at the facility.
Since 2022, every winter in Ukraine was defined by what people called the “Blackout"—mass power outages caused by Russian missile and drone attacks.
While Russia spent billions to plunge ordinary people into darkness, thousands of energy workers did the extraordinary to keep the country’s lights on.
Electrical engineers from DTEK worked from cranes on wires damaged by Russian shelling, often wearing helmets and bulletproof vests to restore equipment after attacks.
On December 25, 2024, a Russian strike killed Dmytro Petlenko, a veteran specialist at a DTEK thermal power plant. After a search operation, he was found dead under the rubble. Petlenko had dedicated over 30 years to the energy sector, including a long career at the now-occupied Zaporizhzhia Thermal Power Plant.
By late 2025, the company had reported dozens of fatalities among its staff, including technicians who were killed during repair works near the frontline and plant operators who died when missiles struck thermal power stations.
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-111f0e5095e02c02446ffed57bfb0ab1.jpeg "Photo of Roman Kohanets")
