EU to prepare Ukraine for winter: allocates large sum for repair of energy infrastructure

The European Commission will allocate 40 million euros to Ukraine to prepare for the winter. In particular, the funds will be used to repair energy infrastructure.

This was announced by the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen. She noted that the assistance

• is provided against the backdrop of continuous Russian attacks on energy infrastructure;
• In addition to repairing energy facilities, the aid will be used for heating and shelters for Ukrainians.

"Russia is relentlessly attacking Ukraine's energy infrastructure. Temperatures will soon drop, so we are stepping up our humanitarian assistance to Ukrainians in need with a new €40 million package for repairs, electricity, heating, and shelters," the statement said.

The European Commission itself noted that out of 40 million euros, 35 million will be used to prepare Ukraine for the winter. Another 5 million will be used to support Ukrainian refugees and the communities that host them in Moldova.

"Together with our humanitarian partners, the EU is committed to repairing damaged buildings, and providing electricity and heating. And to provide shelter to those who need it most," they said.

Power outages have become more severe due to the new logic of shelling the power system

Earlier, energy expert Viktor Kurtev said that Russia has returned to the logic of shelling the Ukrainian energy sector, which it used in 2022-2023. The enemy has again started hitting electricity transmission systems. The result was the emergency shutdown of several nuclear power units, which led to a sharp increase in blackouts. He explained:

• "In 2022-2023, Russia was hitting the networks and transmission systems."

"For the most part, these were Ukrenergo's main substations and substation units of large thermal generation," the expert said.

• From March 21, 2024, until mid-summer, the enemy attacked generating facilities.

"These were concentrated attacks on generation facilities with the destruction of power units and generating equipment. That's how we lost 9,000 megawatts of generation in 5 months," he said.

• On August 26, Russia returned to the logic of the 2022 shelling.

"22 power facilities were attacked. Of these, 4 are gas transmission system facilities, and 18 are trunk grid facilities. These are mostly substations adjacent to nuclear power plants. The intention was to strike at the NPP power output. As a result, 3 nuclear units were shut down, and a little later – another one. We lost a lot of generation at that moment, and the blackouts began," Kurtev said.

However, he emphasized that the system was restored very quickly. It was even expected that "the outage schedules would disappear this week".

"But it will be a little harder. But I think that in a maximum of two weeks, the outage schedules will stop somewhere around mid-November, adjusted for new strikes," the expert stated.

As reported by OBOZ.UA, according to Kurtev, to protect the power system, Ukraine should have invested in air defense rather than passive defense elements. As time has shown, this strategy has not paid off.

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