The German Development Ministry announced on Wednesday that it will send Ukraine 70 million euros ($78 million) to support heating and electricity supplies in the winter.
The money will be used to provide Ukrainian cities and towns with small thermal power plants, boiler systems, generators and solar energy systems, the ministry announced after a meeting of the budget committee.
Ukraine’s Energy Ministry expects significant power outages this winter despite repair work.
“Russian attacks on energy supplies are intended to exhaust and drive Ukrainians away,” German Development Minister Svenja Schulze said. “We support Ukraine in rebuilding its electricity supply in a decentralized way so that Russia cannot destroy it so easily,” she added.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Wednesday that Russia has destroyed all of Ukraine’s thermal power plants and “a large part” of the country’s hydroelectric capacity. In total, Russia has damaged 80% of the energy infrastructure, he said.
