NATO ENSEC COE together with Ukraine institutions organized an Advanced Training Course and Table-top Exercise

On 16-20th October of 2017 in Kyiv, Ukraine, the NATO Energy Security Centre of Excellence (ENSEC COE) and the Ministry of Energy and Coal Industry of Ukraine organized an Advanced Training Course and Table-top Exercise on Critical Energy Infrastructure Security called "Coherent Resilience 2017".

The Course was planned in close cooperation with the US Naval Postgraduate School, the Ukrainian National Institute of Strategic Studies and support from NATO HQ and NATO Science for Peace and Security program, which financed the course as part of the NATO Comprehensive Assistance Package to Ukraine.

The aim of the training course was to observe how various Ukrainian organizations and governmental institutions are prepared and equipped to respond to simulated crisis scenarios: cyber and kinetic attacks, information distortion, economic blockade, blocking of the energy supply equipment and energy resources and how that would affect the energy infrastructure in short and long terms.

As part of the training course, experts from various countries: Belgium, the Czech Republic, Germany, Georgia, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Turkey, Ukraine, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the United States of America, were gathered to impart their experiences and knowledge to the multiple exercise members from governmental, military and industry sectors of Ukraine.

At the end of the course various distinguished guests visited to inspect training achievements and cooperation gains. The importance of such exercises in understanding system vulnerabilities and combining efforts to overcome them was recognized. The need for further actions in organising similar or same training courses in the future was proposed.

Among the distinguished guests were: Deputy Supreme Allied Commander Transformation Admiral Manfred Nielson, Vice-Prime-Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration of Ukraine Mrs. Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze, Deputy Minister of Energy and Coal Industry Ms. Nataliya Boyko, Dr. Oleksandr Sukhodolia form the National Institute for Strategic Studies, H.E. Mr. Marius Janukonis Ambassador of the Republic of Lithuania to Ukraine, Vice-minister of the Ministry of Foreign affairs of the Republic of Lithuania Mr. Darius Skusevičius, the Director of the Lithuanian electricity transmission system operator "Litgrid" Mr. Daivis Virbickas, and the Dicertor of the NATO ENSEC COE COL Gintaras Bagdonas.

Furthermore, the participants have reported large gains in their understanding of the issues and weaknesses of their current systems, as well as the ways to deal with those obstacles. At the same time, the organizers remarked that this exercise allowed them to gain additional experience to improve and develop even more exercises in the field of energy security, crisis response and energy infrastructure management.