EU Council to discuss two issues on Ukraine on Monday

At a meeting of EU foreign ministers on Monday, two main issues will be discussed regarding Ukraine: support for the Ukrainian energy system before the next winter and support for the capabilities of Ukrainian air defence. 

EU chief diplomat Josep Borrell noted in a comment to journalists before the meeting that the ministers would discuss how to avoid the complete destruction of Ukraine's energy infrastructure as a result of Russian attacks and mitigate the damage already caused before the onset of winter.

"70% of the power generation capacity in Ukraine has been destroyed. We are in the summer, but in the winter this will be much more difficult to bear. So, I will call the Member States to provide more support to rebuild and substitute the electricity grid [to ensure] more power generation," he said.

The second issue will be maintaining air defence capabilities. In this context, Borrell mentioned the Russian attack on the Okhmatdyt National Specialised Children's Hospital immediately after Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán's "peace visit" to Moscow.

"So, more air defence and more electricity generation capacity. These are the two calls the Member States will have to look at," he said.  

Borrell said that Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba would join him at one point in the meeting. 

Last week, it was announced that Lithuanian energy company Ignitis Gamyba would be transferring equipment from the Vilnius Third Combined Heat and Power Plant to Ukraine to help recover Ukraine's energy infrastructure.

Poland appealed to the European Commission to supply electricity to Ukraine from its thermal power plants.