Germany Dismantles Lubmin Plant for Transfer to Ukraine

SEFE spokesperson Adrianne Montgobert told RFE/RL that a team from Ukraine’s Naftogaz is managing the transfer. The facility stopped operating in April 2023, after the Nord Stream pipelines were sabotaged. “All reuse and sale options” were explored, Montgobert said, but none produced a commercially viable deal. Donating the plant was judged “the best alternative to scrapping it.” She said dismantling was proceeding smoothly, with no concerns reported by long-time employees or managers.

The transfer has drawn criticism from Germany’s Alternative for Germany (AfD). The main opposition party unsuccessfully sought to stop it in May, arguing that removing the plant would “impair future energy policy options.” Gerold Juergens, president of the Western Pomerania Business Association, told a German media outlet that people might ask: “First they blow up the pipeline and then they take away the power plant. You can't explain that to anyone.”

A trial is under way in Hamburg of a Ukrainian special forces officer accused of leading the Nord Stream sabotage team. Kyiv has denied involvement in the September 2022 explosions, which ruptured three of the four undersea pipelines.

The Lubmin transfer is part of a broader effort to move energy equipment and decommissioned plants to Ukraine. In December 2025, the EU completed the relocation of Lithuania’s Vilnius Combined Heat and Power Plant in 149 shipments weighing 2,399 tons; it was used for parts at Ukrainian energy facilities. Lithuania has also pledged hundreds of tons of equipment from its decommissioned Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant.

An EU spokesperson told RFE/RL that more than 4 billion euros ($4.42 billion) in energy security aid has gone to Ukraine since Russia’s 2022 invasion. The aid, the spokesperson said, “could generate power capable of supporting up to approximately 9.6 million people.” The spokesperson declined to say how much donated infrastructure had been destroyed in Russian missile and drone strikes.

The Riga CHP-2 plant in Latvia is next in line for transfer. A Brussels source told RFE/RL on November 11 that two decommissioned coal-fired plants in Germany were also being considered, but declined to identify them over sabotage concerns.