Vladimir Zelensky has signed a decree to purchase Russian reactors in Bulgaria for the Khmelnytskyi NPP. This was announced by the deputy of the Ukrainian parliament Yaroslav Zheleznyak on his Telegram channel.
He wrote that the purchase will cost the Ukrainian side 1 billion dollars.
Zheleznyak spoke out against this initiative, noting that “geopolitical processes do not stop the appetite for large-scale nuclear theft“.
Earlier, the Ukrainian Minister of Energy German Galushchenko said that the country would need 3.85 billion dollars to complete the construction of two units of the nuclear power plant, and according to him, the permit issued by the Bulgarian parliament to conclude the transaction for the purchase and sale of the reactors expires in March. Bulgarian deputies do not plan to extend the deadlines.
The readiness of the third power unit of the Khmelnytskyi NPP is up to 80%, the fourth - up to 30%. The completion of their construction was frozen for several decades. If the plant is completed, it will become the most powerful in Europe. According to Galushchenko, construction can be completed in four years.
The Russian VVER-1000 reactors remained in Bulgaria after Sofia refused to build the Belene NPP. The intention to sell them to Ukraine was confirmed in the fall of 2023 by the then Bulgarian Prime Minister Nikolay Denkov. According to him, an independent international company valued the equipment planned for sale at more than €1 billion. In July of the same year, Bulgarian deputies decided to entrust the Ministry of Energy with negotiations with the Ukrainian side on the sale of the two reactors, four steam generators and four circulation pumps. At that time, it was noted that the amount of the deal should cover Sofia's previously incurred costs of about 600 million euros.
All power units of Ukrainian nuclear power plants are designed to use fuel assemblies manufactured by the Russian company TVEL. However, in March 2022, Kiev decided to completely abandon the purchase of fuel for nuclear power plants in Russia and switch to assemblies from the American company Westinghouse. It is planned that the Russian reactors purchased by Bulgaria will also operate with Westinghouse fuel.