‘On request from energy ministry, and to regulate energy markets, the decision is adopted to temporarily suspect power imports from the Republic Belarus and the Russian Federation,’ said Denys Shmygal in his official statement on Ukrainian sanctions against Belarus.

The move comes as part of Kyiv sanctions against Belarus following forceful landing of a Ryanair plane in Minsk and detention of the Belarus opposition activist Roman Pratasevich.

Earlier this month, the energy ministry asked the authority to ban power imports from countries which are not members of the Energy Community (Russia and Belarus).

In February, heads of the major heat and power plants also approached the Ukrainian prime minister with the letter asking to ban energy imports from Russia and Belarus and drop pricing restriction for domestic market.