Key facts
- The Greifswald industrial power plant in Lubmin ceased operation in April 2023.
- SEFE spokesperson Adrianne Montgobert said all reuse and sale options were explored but no commercially viable solution emerged.
- The transfer is set to be completed within "the first quarter" of 2027, Montgobert said.
- The AfD made an unsuccessful motion in May to halt the plant's transfer to Ukraine.
- The EU spokesperson said more than 4 billion euros ($4.42 billion) of energy security aid has been supplied to Ukraine since 2022.
Germany is dismantling the Greifswald industrial power plant in Lubmin, at the landfall of the Nord Stream gas pipelines, and sending it to Ukraine, according to a spokesperson for the state-owned company that majority owns it. Adrianne Montgobert of Securing Energy for Europe (SEFE) told RFE/RL that dismantling is under way and that a team from Naftogaz, Ukraine's oil and gas company, is managing the transfer. The facility ceased operation in April 2023.
Montgobert said in an email that "all reuse and sale options [for the Lubmin plant] were explored including actual sales negotiations, but no commercially viable solution emerged." Donating the facility to Ukraine was seen as "the best alternative to scrapping it," she said. The transfer is set to be completed within "the first quarter" of 2027, Montgobert said.
The Nord Stream pipelines, which run under the Baltic Sea from Russia to Germany, are no longer operational. Three of the four undersea lines were ruptured in September 2022. Kyiv has denied involvement in the explosions. A trial of a Ukrainian special forces officer accused of leading a team in the sabotage is under way in Hamburg.
In May, the main opposition party, Alternative for Germany (AfD), made an unsuccessful motion to halt the plant's transfer, claiming the removal would "impair future energy policy options." The AfD has supported ending military aid to Ukraine and lifting sanctions on Russia. Gerold Juergens, president of the Western Pomerania Business Association, told a German media outlet, "many people's impression is: First they blow up the pipeline and then they take away the power plant. You can't explain that to anyone."