EU allows more power imports from Ukraine, Kyiv says

KYIV (Reuters) -The European Union has increased the maximum capacity of electricity imports from Ukraine by 38.5%, giving Kyiv a chance to earn money to rebuild power facilities destroyed by Russian attacks, Ukraine's energy ministry said on Thursday.

The new limit of 900 megawatt hours will be in place until August 1, and then reviewed on a monthly basis.

Ukraine started large power exports to the EU before Russia's full-scale invasion in 2022. It stopped them after Russia damaged Ukrainian power generating facilities, before resuming them earlier this year.

"Increasing the maximum export capacity is an important step that will make it easier to balance the Ukrainian energy system," energy minister German Galushchenko said on Telegram.

He said it would also allow Ukrainian power plants to earn additional profit to tackle the consequences of Russian attacks and prepare for winter.

Due to Russian missile and drone attacks, Ukraine lost about half of its generating capacity, most of which was later restored.

Ukraine's ExPro consultancy said this week that the country had increased its electricity exports to 237 megawatt hours in June from around 95 MWh in May.

The consultancy said Ukraine had exported power to Hungary, Slovakia, Romania, Moldova and Poland.

(Reporting by Pavel PolityukEditing by Mark Potter)