The US will announce on Tuesday new aid to Ukraine to help it restore its electricity system, as the country faces another week of cold and darkness after its energy infrastructure was hit hard by Russian bombing.
Russia has been targeting Ukraine's power plants since the beginning of October, as well as the electricity distribution network and water pumping stations.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he expects new Russian attacks this week, which may be as severe as the last one, which left millions of people without water, electricity and heating.
U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, who arrived in Bucharest today, will announce new aid to Ukraine to help it restore its power grid, a senior State Department official who wished to remain anonymous said.
Washington is working with U.S. companies and European countries seeking equipment and components in order to restore the damage[/B] to high-voltage power stations in Ukraine, the official explained.
Ukraine's largest private power company, DTEK, said it would cut electricity supplies by 60 percent for consumers in Kiev.
Grid operator Ukrenergo noted on Monday that it had been forced to resume emergency power outages across the country.
In Kherson, which has been without electricity and heating since the withdrawal of Russian forces earlier in November, regional governor Yaroslav Yanusevich said 24 percent of consumers now have electricity.
For his part, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba told a meeting of his counterparts from seven Baltic and Scandinavian countries that his country needs transformers and better anti-aircraft defense.
And NATO
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg will ask Alliance countries to pledge more aid to Kiev at a meeting of foreign ministers today and tomorrow in Bucharest.
A key issue in these talks will be increasing military aid to Kiev, such as anti-aircraft defence and ammunition, as well as providing non-lethal assistance.
Part of this non-lethal assistance, including but not limited to fuel, medical equipment, winter equipment and anti-drone jamming devices, is being delivered to Ukraine through a NATO aid package to which member countries contribute and which Stoltenberg wants to strengthen.
"It will be a horrible winter for Ukraine, so we are working to increase our support to make it more resilient," a European diplomat commented.
Germany, which holds the rotating presidency of the G7, has scheduled a G7 meeting with some of its partners on the sidelines of the NATO talks as it looks for ways to speed up the repair of damage to Ukraine's energy infrastructure.
Foreign ministers will also discuss Ukraine's request to join NATO, but are expected to merely reaffirm the alliance's open-door policy, with membership of the war-torn country looking distant.
No lights on Christmas trees in Kiev
Snow is falling in Kiev and the temperature is hovering around freezing, while millions of residents in the capital are struggling to warm their homes.
Christmas trees will be decorated, but without lights, across the city in a sign that Kiev residents are defying Russian attacks, officials said.
"We cannot allow Putin to steal Christmas from us," Kiev Mayor Vitaly Klitschko told RBC-Ukraine.
Since Russian forces have retreated in the northeast and across the Dnieper River in the south, the front line is about half as long as it was a few months ago, making it difficult for Ukrainian forces to find weak points and attempt a new counterattack.
Ukraine's army general staff said late Monday that Russian forces were heavily shelling towns on the west bank of the Dnieper, including Kherson.
In addition, Moscow is shelling the cities of Bakhmut and Avdiivka in Donetsk province, while in the north it bombed areas around the cities of Kupiansk and Lyman, which Kiev recently retook.
Ukrainian forces damaged a railway bridge north of Russian-held Melitopol in southern Ukraine, which is critical for transporting supplies to Russian forces in the region.
Source: KYPE
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