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U.S. Pledges $53 Million to Help Fix Ukraine’s Electrical Grid – The New York Times – 29.11.22

Writer's picture: Michael JulienMichael Julien

American officials said they hoped the commitment would spur allies to make similar donations, as many Ukrainians head into winter without power or water. By Edward Wong and Steven Erlanger.


BUCHAREST, Romania — Officials of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization on Tuesday stressed their commitment to eventually allowing Ukraine to become a member of the military alliance. But they spent the first day of a two-day summit focused on a more immediate concern: helping the nation rebuild an electrical grid crippled by relentless Russian airstrikes.


Over the past eight months, the United States and its allies have poured in billions in aid to help Ukraine fend off the Russian invasion, largely in the form of weaponry. Now, with millions of Ukrainians facing the prospect of a winter without heat, discussion is focusing as much on transformers, circuit breakers and surge arresters as on tanks, artillery and air-defense systems.


On Tuesday, American officials pledged to give Ukraine $53 million to repair the electrical grid, and sought to rally other allies to make similar offers.

The aid commitment came as diplomats from more than 30 nations gathered in Bucharest, Romania, where the NATO secretary-general made clear that the alliance might one day expand to include Ukraine — a stance opposed by President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia.


“NATO’s door is open,” said Jens Stoltenberg, the secretary general of NATO.

But for the present, he said, the war has to be the focus.


“NATO will continue to stand for Ukraine as long as it takes,” Mr. Stoltenberg said. “We will not back down.”


Western officials say the Ukrainian reconstruction campaign needs to be considered a second front in the war. The American pledge that was made on Tuesday came from Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken at a meeting of Group of 7 nations and a few other partner countries, on the sidelines of a two-day conclave of NATO foreign ministers.

In Ukraine, as the temperatures drop, millions have been living without power and water.


Russia’s military has sent wave after wave of missiles and drones to hit the country’s transmission grid, including high-voltage transformer stations, which are more vulnerable than power plants. One senior American official estimated that 25 to 30 percent of Ukraine’s energy infrastructure had been damaged, though Ukrainian officials have put the figure much higher in recent days.


In April, not long after Russian troops swept into Ukraine, American officials marshaled dozens of allies to furnish Ukraine with long-term military aid, and organized the countries into the Ukraine Defense Contact Group.


Now U.S. officials want to do much the same on the infrastructure front.

The Americans are organizing a working group to help Ukraine repair energy equipment and to better defend its power plants and grid from attack. The talks began early this month at a meeting of foreign ministers of the Group of 7 nations in Münster, Germany.


The energy “contact group” is centered on those nations and their close partners, and is expected to meet again next month in Paris.


The $53 million announced on Tuesday is to be used to buy a range of equipment, including distribution transformers and circuit breakers, the State Department said. The U.S. government plans to buy the equipment and transfer it to Ukraine, focusing first on what can be shipped there fastest, a senior agency official said.


The Biden administration has already identified $30 million of equipment that can be sent, including from Department of Energy stocks, the official said.


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With the power out, some vendors in Kyiv resorted to cellphones for light on Tuesday. Credit...Oleg Petrasyuk/EPA, via Shutterstock



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