Ukraine's electricity imports fall as crisis fades
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Editor's note: This article was updated to include comments from an energy expert.
Ukraine's imports of electricity dropped by 25% in March compared to the previous month, as the country emerges from a devastating winter brought on by Russian attacks on the energy grid.
Data from Ukrainian energy analyst group ExPro Consulting published on April 2 showed that Ukraine imported 942 gigawatt hours of electricity in March 2026, compared to over 1,200 gigawatt hours in February.
Russia launched thousands of drones and missiles at Ukraine in an attempt to annihilate Ukraine's power and heating infrastructure over the winter — the coldest since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine over four years ago.
Temperatures regularly dropped to -20 degrees Celsius across large swathes of the country in January and February.
"This decline in imports shows that the energy system is under less stress, as warmer weather, solar and hydro generation, and repairs support the system," Vladyslav Mikhnych, director of the Kyiv Energy and Climate Lab, told the Kyiv Independent.
"But it does not mean we are at the end of the crisis, since Ukraine still depends on outside imports to meet a sizeable portion of its needs" he added.
"We have moved from an emergency to a fragile recovery."
Ukraine, historically an electricity exporter, ceased exporting electricity late last year, and by January was importing record amounts of electricity.
Almost half of the imported electricity came from Hungary in March 2026, according to ExPro.
Budapest threatened to cut electricity exports to Ukraine amid tensions over the Druzhba oil pipeline in February and March.
Shortly after, Slovakia, which provided just under a fifth of Ukraine’s electricity imports over the winter, cancelled emergency supplies to Ukraine's state-grid operator, Ukrenergo, in early March.
The decision came after Bratislava joined Hungary in accusing Ukraine of withholding oil transit through the Druzhba pipeline for political reasons, which Kyiv denies.
Ukraine exported electricity again for the first time on March 5, as repairs to the grid and solar production buoyed Ukraine's electricity generation.
