EU steps up efforts to help restore power and heating in Ukraine
The European Union is intensifying its efforts and working with partners to provide the emergency support Ukraine needs to restore and maintain power and heating for the civilian population, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said.
In a statement after a November 25 phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Von der Leyen said: “I expressed to President Zelenskyy the EU’s full solidarity with Ukraine as it suffers at the hands of Putin’s deliberate and barbaric bombing of the country’s civilian infrastructure.
“I strongly condemn these attacks. Russia must be held accountable for what constitute war crimes,” she said.
Through the EU’s Emergency Response Coordination Centre, the Commission is currently preparing the delivery to Ukraine as quickly as possible of large donations by EU countries and directly from the Commission’s rescEU reserve.
These include 200 medium-sized transformers and a large autotransformer from Lithuania, a medium-sized autotransformer from Latvia and 40 heavy generators from the rescEU reserve located in Romania.
Each of these generators can provide uninterrupted power to a small to medium sized hospital, Von der Leyen said.
“The European Commission is additionally working on a new energy rescEU hub in Poland to allow donations from third parties and help with their delivery to Ukraine in a coordinated fashion, particularly with our G7 partners,” she said.
“We have also reached out to relevant companies in various countries to request vital high voltage equipment, including further autotransformers, and are coordinating with partners to transport them rapidly to Ukraine,” Von der Leyen said.
(Photo of Von der Leyen: EC Audiovisual Service)
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