Russia has launched a disinformation campaign that aims to convince Ukrainians that Ukraine continues to export electricity to other countries, in particular, Moldova. This thesis is promoted by Russian propagandists and Ukrainian anti-vaxxer bloggers, fortune tellers and even YouTube channels of those breeding Corgis. Among those spreading a fake about the sale of electricity to Moldova is the well-known Ukrainian anti-vaccinator Ostap Stakhiv. This proves that the campaign is coordinated to work with different target audiences, writes StopFake.

In fact, turning off the electricity in Moldova, despite the statements of propagandists, does not prove that Ukraine supplies electricity to the country. Ukraine and Moldova are in a single block of regulation. This means that the systems of Moldova and Ukraine are six times more strongly interconnected than, for example, Moldova and Romania. This process of combining systems began in 2006 to make it easier for the systems of the two countries to integrate into the pan-European energy system. Moldova does not have many power generating capacities, and one of the largest producers, Moldova GRES, is located in Transnistria and is owned by the Russian Inter RAO. Until October 11 of this year, Moldova bought at least 30% of electricity from Ukraine, but Ukraine stopped deliveries and Moldova was forced to urgently conclude a contract with the same Russian power plant in Transnistria. Also, since October 13, Moldova has been buying a small part of the electricity needed from Romania. And they turn off the lights in Moldova after the shelling precisely because the systems of the two countries are connected, and when part of the system of Ukraine is turned off, Moldova is also turned off.

Propagandists also spread a fake that it seems that on the websites of various energy companies you can see that Ukraine gives electricity to other countries. This is also not true: the sites show data on non-commercial energy supply to the systems of neighboring countries. Also, these countries give such an amount of electricity to the Ukrainian system. This is done to balance the systems. You can read more about this in the article “Without light but without you”.