The United States is preparing to announce “significant” financial assistance to Ukraine to help the country deal with the damage caused by Russian attacks on its energy infrastructure, senior US officials told Agence France-Presse (AFP) on Monday.
US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, who arrived in Bucharest on Monday to attend a meeting of NATO foreign ministers, will speak about the support in detail on Tuesday.
Senior U.S. officials said the support “will be substantial and not last,” although they did not specify when the exact amount would be.
The same sources, on condition of anonymity, recalled that the government led by Joe Biden has already allocated 1 billion 100 million dollars (about 1 billion euros) for the energy of Ukraine and Moldova.
The aid is part of the prospect of an international donor conference “Support for Ukrainian Civil Resistance” to be held on December 13 in France, they added.
Since the beginning of October, Russia has launched a series of massive missile strikes on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure.
According to figures provided by the Ukrainian government, between 25% and 30% of this type of infrastructure was damaged.
“What the Russians are doing is specifically targeting high-voltage transformer factories,” and not just the power plants themselves, to disrupt the entire chain from production to distribution, one North American official explained.
This meeting of the North Atlantic Council, NATO’s main political decision-making body at the level of foreign ministers, will take place from today through Wednesday at the Palace of Parliament in the Romanian capital and will be attended by Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kulebu to discuss the most urgent needs of this countries and NATO’s long-term support.
In addition to the war in Ukraine, the ministers will take stock of the accession of Finland and Sweden, which has already been ratified by 28 of the 30 member countries but remains on hold pending a green light from Turkey and Hungary, and will discuss the growing threat from China.
Germany, which chairs the G7, in turn called for a meeting this afternoon on the sidelines of NATO on the energy crisis caused by the war in Ukraine, during which the United States will appeal to other countries to increase their assistance in this area. . , according to one US official.
Romania, like neighboring Moldova, was heavily affected by the war, and about 2 million people passed through these countries to escape Ukraine. Currently, there are about 80,000 refugees in Bucharest, according to figures cited by Washington.
The military offensive launched on February 24 by Russia in Ukraine has already caused the flight of more than 13 million people – more than six million internally displaced people and more than 7.8 million to European countries – according to the latest UN data, which classifies this migration crisis as the worst in Europe since World War II (1939-1945).
The Russian invasion, justified by Russian President Vladimir Putin on the need to “denazify” and demilitarize Ukraine for Russia’s security, was condemned by the international community at large, which responded by sending weapons to Ukraine and imposing political and economic sanctions on Russia.
The UN has presented as confirmed 6,655 civilian deaths and 10,368 wounded since the start of the war, stressing that these figures are much lower than the real ones.
Author: Portuguese
Source: CM Jornal
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