Ukraine’s Western partners need to step up in providing air defences for Kyiv’s war effort, as Russia is likely to try to knock out the country’s energy infrastructure before winter, EU chief diplomat Josep Borrell said on Monday (23 September).
“It’s clear that Russia wants to put Ukraine into the dark and the cold – the winter is coming, and following Russia’s attacks against energy targets, Ukraine’s energy production capacity has been reduced by two-thirds,” Borrell told reporters in New York.
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His comments came after two informal meetings of EU and G7 foreign ministers on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, also attended by Ukraine’s new Foreign Minister, Andrii Sybiha.
According to EU diplomats, one of the objectives of the talks was to see how to support Ukraine over the coming months, as Russia has ramped up attacks on the country’s critical infrastructure over the past weeks.
Over the past two and a half years, Moscow has targeted Ukraine’s energy system, causing blackouts and limited electricity and water supply to some regions for hours each day.
Western officials fear those attacks will increase further over the next few weeks.
The International Energy Agency (IEA) said in a report last Thursday that Ukraine’s electricity supply shortfall could reach 6 gigawatts this winter.
“We have to support Ukraine not only providing military capacity, but electricity production capacity – otherwise, this country will be facing a very hard time in winter,” Borrell said.
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The bloc’s chief diplomat also added that further air defence support to Kyiv would be crucial to avoid the situation worsening.
“Both things [energy and military support] have to be done at the same time (…) because it doesn’t make sense to provide an electricity generator today if it has to be destroyed tomorrow,” he stressed.
At the same time, Borrell also called out Iran, which has been accused by Western countries of providing new weapons systems, especially drones and missiles, to Russia.
“It’s clear that Russia has been receiving new arms, in particular missiles from Iran,” Borrell said. “This is what we believe, even if Iranians deny it, but it looks like it.”
In a separate meeting, G7 foreign ministers met over dinner to discuss sending long-range missiles to Ukraine, which could enable Kyiv to strike targets within Russian territory.
However, while Borrell said he would support dropping restrictions on their usage, he admitted that a consensus among Ukraine’s Western allies on the issue remains far off.
G7 countries, as well as other participating partners, raised over $4 billion for the restoration of Ukraine’s energy infrastructure.
“We have collectively, as G7 and other partner countries, worked to mobilise resources over the last couple of years for Ukraine, for its people, to ensure that they have the energy supplies that they need and that the country can deliver those supplies to the people who need them,” US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken told reporters.
“Now, this money is important, but what it really means is it translates into practical necessities to help our Ukrainian friends get through the coming months, and particularly getting through the winter,” Blinken added.
Reprinted from Euractiv. You can find the original here.
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