Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Wednesday from the NATO summit in Bucharest that the US and its allies have agreed to form a group to help repair Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, which has been decimated by Russian missile and drone strikes.
The State Department announced Tuesday that it would provide Ukraine with $53 million in aid for power grid repairs as Russian strikes have left millions of Ukrainians without power, water, and heat.
Ukrainian civilians are facing a dire situation as Ukrainian energy providers are warning there will likely be rolling blackouts in the country until March. Ukrainian officials have said Russian strikes have damaged about half of the country’s energy infrastructure.
The US has been leading meetings on military aid for Ukraine, known as the Ukraine Defense Contact Group. According to The New York Times, the US is looking to set up a similar group to rally countries to give Ukraine more assistance to help repair energy infrastructure.
Blinken met with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba on the sidelines of the NATO summit. Kuleba said that he thanked the US for its effort to help repair the grid, which will focus on transformers, circuit breakers, and surge arresters.
While looking to help Ukraine repair its power grid, the US and NATO are pursuing policies that will make Russian strikes on energy infrastructure more likely.
NATO members have encouraged attacks on Crimea and back Ukraine’s goal of retaking the peninsula, which Russia has controlled since 2014. Russia didn’t start large-scale attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure until October, after the truck bombing of the Kerch Bridge, which connects Crimea to the Russian mainland.
War always has been and always will be hell manifested on earth. This war is not a war for democratic values vs totalitarian evil. (As many of my high-minded friends believe it to be.) The region is and has been complex and full of strife for hundreds of years. I cringe thinking of the US boot-stamping its way across the world, especially now in Ukraine, via NATO. The only way to fix the power infrastructure is to negotiate, to arrive at a mutual solution, however, imperfect; then, only then, could aid actually be used to fix the grid.
I agree, this is not a war against totalitarian evil, but a the west supporting Ukraine to keep sustain the idea that we will sanction wars of territorial conquest. We have to do this even if we may not be particularly fond of the Ukrainians simply because if not resisted then the number of places where war will seem like a profitable idea for the aggressing nation will grow very significantly.
Aggressing Nation ? , top this America has invaded 33 countries since 1953 , America has 1200 plus military base around the world Russia has 9 , China has one , who is the aggressing Nation ?.
The aggressor nation is different in each action, in most of the 33 cases you mention it was the US. The point here is that the US has annexed no territory in any of the nations it has invaded – which is why it, in most cases, has been a really poor idea for their national economy.
As pointed out it is the annexation of territory that makes is necessary to resist/sanction this at all costs, that is if you are against war and not just against the US or Russia.
Your defense of the US is so weak that you make the US look … close to absolute evil.
Especially since we killed far more civilians in Iraq than have been killed in Ukraine, our Shock and Awe was far more brutal and destructive than anything that has been done in Ukraine, and in the US we televised live footage of our glorious pilots destroying whole city blocks – EVERY LAST BUILDING – and we cheered and toasted this “accomplishment”.
Oftentimes I think that your purpose here is to smear the US with your posts.
Perhaps that is because I’m not defending the US – what I am saying is that what Russia is doing is different from what the US has done – that is not a defense of what the US has done, because what the US has done is also wrong.
Again why would I defend the indefensible? Just because the US has done really bad things does not mean that Russia is entitled to do bad things too. Moreover as I point out what Russia is doing could be on an order of magnitude less lethal to the people it is doing it to, and still be worse in the consequences it has via contagion.
I do not care for US foreign policy, if that is what you are referring to – the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan the intervention in Libya, etc. all bad or very bad – why is it that you live in a world where the evil that the US does somehow serves as an excuse for the Russians to do something very bad too?
Thank you your comments here
We made our points, and I understand your point of view better.
I will leave this as is, we can go into it in more depth possibly after some reflection time.
And we have criticized the US for that and called to have those responsible brought to justice. Has it happened? No but that doesn’t mean that we have to accept other copycats around the world doing the same and even going farther by annexing land. We should resist this very behaviour you just mentioned and keep it from being imitated elsewhere by other actors using the “US did it so why can’t we” as an excuse.
Same response as to the one I made to Michael earlier.
There will no doubt be opportunity to continue this discussion at a later time.
How many of those countries were annexed?
Ah, the slippery slope argument, a logical fallacy. We are the world’s policemen who write the rules of everyone’s conduct, carefully carving out this war as totally different and unacceptable, from all the other wars the US and it’s western vassals are inflicting around the world.
Lines on a map don’t matter to the US, everything everywhere is ours.
The point being that the slippery slope is not a theory but judging from all evidence very much a real thing – as in why would any nation not try to do what is best for their national interest – which is what it will take to stop the copy cat process from begening.
The logical fallacy would be to assume that in a world where territorial annexations were an acceptable outcome, there would not be a return to the old ways of improving on the national situation by annexing territory belonging to weaker neighvors.
Just whataboutery – and irrelevant whataboutery at that since the US has not annexed any territory since about WWII.
Allies? What allies? Anglo-American empire doesn’t have allies. It got slaves, subjects and vassal states. No such thing as equal partnership for these parasites.
Absolutely spot on.
Fix it then the Russian blow it up .
How soon until Russia goes after the remaining 50 percent power grid capacity?
Here at home, the city of Houston needs repair for its power infrastructure.
THE US AND NATO NEED TO HAVE A MOMENT OF PAUSE. You can either lead or you can lament… If you are going to lead, it is time to start arranging some sit-downs so everyone can filter through the garbage and find the pieces that matter and put things in a logical perspective. A logical perspective requires looking at everything that concerns everybody and finding a way thru. The next part is accepting responsibility for your F-Ups and coming up with better ideas so you don’t make the same stupid mistakes again. “Encouraging” attacks on anything by anybody is the height of stupidity and foolishness. It is time for the grownups in the room to take the lead: lay a foundation with a clean, clear and concise passage thru that will prevent you from making the same mistake twice.
Do we really want to go to WAR with Russia???…
“Do we really want to go to WAR with Russia???…”
It appears so. We are seeing a repeat of the decline and the fall of the Roman Empire.
US pushing allies… That’s it.
“US Pushing Allies to Give Ukraine Aid to Fix Its Energy Infrastructure Russian strikes have decimated Ukraine’s infrastructure, leaving millions of Ukrainians without heat and power”
Perhaps America should repair the infrastructure that the military of the US and NATO destroyed in Iraq!
Beta male Blinken and Mr. Potato Head Dmytro Kuleba are two of the most disgusting evil excuses for diplomats the world has ever seen.