Ukraine’s need for energy storage presents opportunities for brave investors, Energy-Storage.news hears from Vadym Utkin, energy storage lead at DTEK.

Now in its 11th year and a firm fixture on the industry calendar, the Energy Storage Summit 2026 opened yesterday in London, UK.  

Ukraine’s government sees energy storage as a tool of strategic national importance as the country weathers Russian attacks and looks to the future.

A busy week of large-scale BESS projects news from the Eastern side of Europe, with projects reaching commissioning, final investment decision, technology procurement and acquisition, led by KNESS’ 2GWh partnership with Hithium in Ukraine.

A total of 49.4GW/136.5GWh of grid-scale BESS came online in the first nine months of the year, up 36% compared to the same period in 2024.

Fluence has deepened its partnership with Ukraine-headquartered energy company DTEK, agreeing to supply a large-scale battery storage project in Poland.

IPP DTEK Group and system integrator Fluence have together put a 200MW/400MWh BESS portfolio in Ukraine into commercial operation, a milestone praised by the country’s energy minister Svitlana Grinchuk.

Energy investment firm DTEK and system integrator Fluence have started commissioning a portfolio of six 2-hour BESS projects in Ukraine.

A consortium of lenders, including state-owned bank Oschadbank, has agreed to Ukraine’s biggest financing for battery energy storage system (BESS) projects to date.

Power generation and energy trading firm DTEK Group is targeting up to 500MW of BESS deployments in Ukraine, which it said are ‘key priority in order to ensure Ukrainian energy security’ in light of Russia’s attacks on its energy system.