Germany will provide an additional 100 million euros ($111 million) in aid to Ukraine this winter, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock announced during a visit to Moldova on Sept. 17, Reuters reported.
Russia is once again planning a "winter war with the aim of making the lives of people in Ukraine as terrible as possible," Baerbock said before a ministerial conference in Chisinau.
Ukrainians have been living with intermittent power outages throughout the summer and autumn since Russia stepped up its campaign of strikes against energy infrastructure.
Serhiy Kovalenko, the CEO of energy supplier Yasno, warned in June that Ukrainians may have electricity for just 6-7 hours per day in the winter, depending on how much of the grid can be repaired.
Ahead of the coming winter, Ukraine has ensured that 85% of its energy infrastructure is protected against further Russian attacks, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said on Sept. 10.
Shmyhal said it is impossible to predict how many hours of blackouts Ukrainians will endure during the winter.
According to the prime minister, the Ukrainian government has allocated Hr 19 billion ($461 million) for the protection of energy facilities, and another Hr 13 billion ($315 million) has been provided by foreign partners.
Dinara Khalilova
