President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen Arrives in Ukraine's Capital with Energy Support

This morning, President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen arrived in the capital of Ukraine on a visit.

She announced this on the social network X.

‘My 8th visit to Kyiv comes at the start of the heating season, and Russia continues to attack energy infrastructure. We will help Ukraine in its valiant efforts,’ von der Leyen wrote. 

The European Commissioner added that she had arrived in the Ukrainian capital to discuss Europe's support for Ukraine, ‘from winterisation to defence, EU accession and progress on G7 loans’. 

The day before, von der Leyen said that the European Union has an energy assistance plan for Ukraine, which includes three areas: recovery, electricity supply and stabilisation. 

The first stage is the repair of energy facilities damaged by Russian shelling.

The second area is to support the Ukrainian energy system with imports from the EU and develop a decentralised network.

The third area is work to stabilise the country's energy system. The EU plans to help strengthen decentralised energy production, which will include the deployment of more renewable energy sources and help Ukraine become more energy independent.

She noted that Russia has destroyed ‘half of Ukraine's entire energy infrastructure’, which is ‘equivalent to the capacity of the three Baltic States combined’.

Von der Leyen also said that for this winter, the EU is providing Ukraine with an additional amount of about €160 million, which will include €60 million in humanitarian aid, such as for the provision of heating stations and heaters, as well as about €100 million for repairs and new generation renewable energy. 

‘And this amount - 100 million - is provided from the proceeds of Russian assets frozen in Europe. It is absolutely fair that Russia should pay for what it has destroyed,’ von der Leyen said.