The European Union will allocate €160 million for Ukraine's energy security this winter, including the rebuilding of power infrastructure, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said Thursday at a press conference.
The amount includes €60 million in humanitarian aid for shelters and heaters, and €100 million from the proceeds of frozen Russian assets which will be used for repair works on the energy infrastructure and investment in renewables, Von der Leyen said.
Since the 2022 invasion, Russia has been targeting Ukraine's energy infrastructure to "try to plunge the country into the dark," Von der Leyen said. "Half of all the country's energy infrastructure has been destroyed. This is approximately the equivalent of the capacity of the three Baltic States together."
Von der Leyen noted that 80% of Ukraine's thermal plants had been destroyed during the war and a third of its hydropower capacity. "So this is where we will concentrate our repair efforts, with the aim of restoring 2.5 GW of capacity this winter," she said. "That is approximately 15% of Ukraine's needs."
Von der Leyen also said the EU exports 2 GW of electricity to Ukraine, which covers about 12% of the country's needs for the winter.
To stabilize the flow of energy in Ukraine, the EU will work on renewable energy projects in the country. "We are for example dispatching solar panels to 21 hospitals in the country to ensure continued energy supply. Eight of them should be fully equipped by this winter," Von der Leyen noted.
Through its Civil Protection Mechanism, the EU has so far sent more than 10,000 power generators and transformers to Ukraine, with more help to come, she said.
"As we speak, there is a full thermal power plant that is being dismantled in Lithuania and shipped piece by piece to Ukraine, with our support, and then rebuilt in Ukraine," Von der Leyen said.
Since the Russian invasion of February 2022, the EU has allocated at least €2 billion towards Ukraine's energy security, according to Von der Leyen.
In June, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky said that Russian missile and drone strikes had destroyed 9 GW of the country's total energy capacity. Ukraine's electricity supply shortfall could reach 6 GW this winter, about a third of the expected peak demand, according to a report published Thursday by the International Energy Agency.
