Zelenski had estimated the urgent energy needs at 800 million to repair the infrastructures damaged by the Russian bombings and prevent the population from running out of light, water and internet
The Ukrainian president, Volodimir Zelenski, in a teleconference with the French president, Emmanuel MacronTERESA SUAREZAFP
Ukraine will receive urgent aid worth 1,000 million euros to be able to face this winter and guarantee the most immediate energy needs. This is the figure that has been raised during the solidarity conference that is being held today in Paris, an initiative of the French Government and whose objective was to mobilize to help the Ukrainian population, which Russia is leaving without light, electricity , water and internet.
This forum, in which 45 countries and more than twenty associations have participated, has managed to raise this amount, higher than the 800 million that the Ukrainian president himself, Vlodomir Zelenski, had said that Ukraine needs to cover your basic energy needs.
“It is a powerful sign that the entire civilized world supports Ukraine,” said the Ukrainian Prime Minister, Denys Shmyhal, at a joint press conference with the French Foreign Minister, Catherine Colonna, who has detailed that this figure 415 million euros are for energy, 25 million for water, 38 million for food, 17 million for health.
If at the beginning of the war, almost a year ago, European countries supported Ukraine by sending arms, now what the population needs to resist the harsh winter are electric generators, transformers , Led lights, turbines… “Right now the generators are as necessary as the armored vehicles,” said Zelenski, who has intervened in a videoconference.
Russia, militarily weakened, has changed its strategy and has been attacking the country’s infrastructure for almost three months to leave the population without light, water and internet. Some attacks “that hit the population and that it is a war crime” and that it is a sample “of their failure at the military level”, said the French president, Emmanuel Macron, at the inauguration of the Paris conference.
Macron wants to lead this winter aid plan for the country in this way and, incidentally, alleviates the irritation that he had caused in kyiv just a few weeks ago after asking for “security guarantees for Russia” when a letter is signed. hypothetical peace.
Energy terror
“This is also a fight for the international order and the stability of all,” said Macron, who has denounced the “energy terror” deployed by Russia. Macron has said that France will give an extra 76 million euros between now and the end of March to provide immediate aid, to buy generators and transformers, also for food and to repair sanitary facilities. To this we must add another 48 million from a previous package that have not yet been channeled.
The president of the European Commission, Ursula Von Der Leyen, promised to finance the purchase of 30 million LED bulbs that will “bring light” to Ukraine. In order to better coordinate the aid so that it arrives as soon as possible, a mechanism has been set up, baptized by Zelenski himself as “the Paris mechanism”.
“The Russians are trying to cause a humanitarian catastrophe, and they want to terrorize the democratic world. We are doing everything to block the black out (blackout) and energy terror,” said Zelenski, who has encrypted In 800 million the most urgent energy needs for the country: Transformers, equipment to restore high voltage networks, gas turbines…
The Ukrainian leader recalled that most of the country’s energy infrastructures have been destroyed, that there are hospitals that suffer outages and prevent doctors from doing their work, that in Kiev there are millions of people that they can only have light a few hours a day. He added that they need 1,500 million only for the reconstruction of the destroyed nuclear power plants.
The EU already decided yesterday to increase the arms fund for Ukraine, Spain approved the shipment of generators and the G7 announced that it will create a platform to coordinate financial aid to help rebuild the country. s. In addition to this morning’s conference, another parallel meeting will be held this afternoon with French companies (some 500 have been called) with the aim of mobilizing them to collaborate in the reconstruction of Ukraine. In addition, although the war has not ended, there is already talk of rebuilding some areas that were devastated after the passage of the Russians.
