What did 22 November 2021 mean for Ukraine's energy and diplomacy?
A retrospective on an agreement for two new Khmelnytskyi reactors and a diplomatic row over Crimea.
What did 22 November 2021 bring for Ukraine? Two developments stood out: a nuclear power deal and a diplomatic dispute involving Kyiv.
On that day, the state company Energoatom and the American electrical engineering company Westinghouse Electric signed an agreement on building two new nuclear power units at the Khmelnytskyi nuclear power plant. The deal tied a Ukrainian state enterprise to a US supplier for new capacity at an existing site.
The same day, the United States expressed deep concern over remarks by Bulgarian President Rumen Radev, who had referred to Crimea as Russian. Radev had also set out his view that Bulgaria should maintain pragmatic ties with Russia. The US statement followed a step by Ukraine three days earlier, when Kyiv summoned the Bulgarian ambassador over the matter.
Taken together, the two items showed Ukraine pursuing partnerships abroad while also defending its position on Crimea through diplomatic channels. One was a commercial agreement signed by a state company; the other was a dispute in which Washington's statement came after Kyiv's own protest.
