EU Council to address energy and air defense for Ukraine in today's meeting – Borrell
Josep Borrell. Photo: Kristin Olsson/TT News Agency via Reuters
This Monday, July 22, the EU Council of Ministers of Foreign Affairs will convene a virtual meeting with Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Dmytro Kuleba. The topics to be discussed are restoring damaged energy facilities, providing winter energy supplies to Ukraine, and reinforcing its air defense system.
Ukrinform reports this.
Today in Brussels, the meeting of the Council of Ministers of the EU on foreign affairs is taking place, the main issues of which are:
- continuation of EU aid to Ukraine,
- development of the situation in the Middle East.
Before the start of the meeting of foreign ministers of the EU countries, EU High Representative Josep Borrell said:
"In Ukraine, we will consider two main issues today. The first is how to avoid the complete destruction of the electricity system. 70% of Ukraine's generating capacity was destroyed this summer. It will be much harder to endure in the winter. So I will call on the member states to provide more support in reconstruction and maintenance of electrical networks with more electricity generation."
According to him, the second issue is providing Ukraine with a sufficient number of anti-aircraft defenses.
"After the visit of Hungarian Prime Minister Orbán to Kyiv and immediately after that – to Putin in Moscow, a children's hospital was destroyed… So, more air defense and more power generation are two key issues that we have to consider. Of course, we will discuss and other issues related to the war against Ukraine when we listen to the Minister of (Foreign Affairs of Ukraine – ed.) Kuleba," the high representative of the EU said.
For reference:
It should be noted that over the past few months, the Russians have carried out up to 10 massive strikes on energy infrastructure facilities in Ukraine, significantly reducing generation opportunities within the country. For this reason, "Ukrenergo" applies daily blackout schedules. Lately, they have been operating around the clock on weekdays.
It is worth noting that Ukraine lost 50% of its power generation capacity due to shelling; the authorities are working on restoration to have as much generation as possible by winter.
Thus, six mini CHP plants will be placed in the capital on the right and left banks.
In addition, the Cabinet of Ministers [Ukraine's government—ed.] approved the order establishing the rules for applying blackout schedules, which would start working on June 24. The government hopes this will allow it to ensure "fair schedules."
However, a difficult energy situation is expected in Ukraine this winter. The light can be turned on 6-7 hours a day.
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