The flow of electricity between the Baltic countries of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania and Russia was officially severed Saturday morning after officials switched off the Soviet-era grid’s transmission lines and prepared to join the rest of Europe on Sunday.

The Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania are now unplugged from Russia's electricity grid and have joined the European Union's network. Plans for the move - which have been in the works since 2007 - were seen as essential for European security and had been brought brought forward after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Latvia was among the three Baltic states that disconnected their electricity systems from Russia's power grid on Saturday (February 8), with energy minister Kaspars Melnis calling it a "historical moment".

The switchover to the European electricity network, which Baltic leaders said held geopolitical and symbolic significance, came more than three decades after the collapse of the Soviet Union. View on