Ursula von der Leyen has granted herself her eighth visit to Kiev to meet President Volodymyr Zelensky and coordinate the next moves, given the centrality of Ukraine for the fate of the EU. As a gift, this time, Ursula brought a loan of 35 billion euros potential and an emergency plan to support the country’s energy infrastructurehammered incessantly by the Russians. Fatih Birol, executive director of the International Energy Agency (IEA), on the eve of Von der Leyen’s trip, had raised the alarm: “For Ukraine it risks being the most difficult winter”. “We are doing our part and I am sure that others will do theirs”, Von der Leyen said in Kiev, clearly referring to the US and the remaining G7 partners (Canada, the United Kingdom and Japan, theoretically responsible for 10 billion).
There is also the energy front: «We will not leave you in the dark,” von der Leyen promised.. Since the beginning of the war, in fact, half of the country’s energy infrastructure has been destroyed, eliminating a production capacity equal to 9 GW. Here, the EU – between exporting electricity and restoring local generation, with targeted investments of 160 million euros – aims to recover “4.5 GW”. In the meantime Matteo Salvini and Viktor Orbanin their one-hour-plus face-to-face meeting in Budapest, share «the urgency of stopping the conflict in Ukraineas authoritatively hoped for by the Holy Father”, according to the official summary of the meeting which took place in the aftermath of the European Parliament resolution on the use on Russian territory of weapons sent to Kiev, which once again forced the majority to face internal distinctions.
For further information:
What happened yesterday
Three Russian strikes on Kharkiv, at least 15 injured
Russian forces have launched three strikes in Kharkiv, wounding at least 15 people, including three children, the mayor of Ukraine’s second-largest city, Ihor Terekhov, said, adding that eight people were being treated in hospital. Kharkiv police, quoted by the public broadcaster Suspilne, said the strikes targeted three different neighborhoods of the city. One strike targeted an area outside a hospital, and Kharkiv regional governor Oleh Syniehubov said four of the wounded were patients at the facility. Further southeast in the Kharkiv region, in the village of Kivsharivka, another Russian strike killed two people and wounded two more, police said. And in the southern region of Kherson, which is partly controlled by Russian forces, a woman died in Russian shelling of an area outside Kherson.
#RussiaUkraine #War #Von #der #Leyen #Kiev #leave #dark #send #billion