Baltic Nations Leave Russian Power Grid, Connect With EU System; Long-Planned Shift Accelerated After 2014

The three Baltic states have disconnected their electricity systems from Russia’s power grid as part of a plan designed to integrate the countries more closely with the EU and boost security. Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania disconnected from the IPS/UPS joint network on Saturday. Subject to last-minute tests, they will synchronise with the EU’s grid at 12.00 GMT on Sunday after operating on their own in the interim.

The European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, will speak at a ceremony on Sunday to mark the switch to the EU system. “We’ve reached the goal we strived for, for so long. We are now in control,” the Lithuanian energy minister, Žygimantas Vaičiūnas, told a press conference.

Immediately after disconnecting, Latvian workers used a crane to reach the high-voltage wires in Vilaka, close to the Russian border, and cut them. They handed out chopped wire as keepsakes to cheering onlookers. “We will never use it again. We are moving on,” Latvia’s energy minister, Kaspars Melnis, said.

Plans for the Baltics to decouple from the grid of their former Soviet imperial overlord, which have been debated for decades, gained momentum after Moscow’s annexation of Crimea in 2014. The grid was the only remaining link to Russia for the three countries, which re-emerged as independent nations in the early 1990s after the fall of the Soviet Union, and joined the EU and Nato in 2004.

EDIT

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/feb/08/baltic-states-leave-russian-power-grid-in-closer-eu-integration