Germany Pledges Winter Aid Package for Ukraine

“Ukraine is facing another winter of war and Putin is waging a brutal war of cold,” the ministry wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

“Russia is deliberately attacking Ukraine’s heat and energy supply. This is why Germany is providing a further €100 million in winter aid for the (Ukrainian) energy supply.”

Moscow has pounded Ukraine’s energy network throughout the two-and-a-half year war, destroying swathes of the country’s infrastructure and causing severe power shortages and blackouts.

Russian forces have recently shifted their focus from shelling energy distribution networks to targeting energy production facilities, which are much more costly and take years to repair or rebuild.

Moscow is also targeting the country’s energy reserves.

Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal last week laid out plans to repair and protect the country’s power system ahead of the winter, including reinforcing facilities against drone attacks and impacts from missile fragments.

Shmygal said all hospitals and more than 80% of schools across the country were equipped with generators, but there was still “an urgent need for another 1,800 high-capacity generators.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in June that Russian strikes on Ukraine’s energy facilities had destroyed half of its electricity generation capacity since last winter.

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