Kyiv — EU chief Ursula von der Leyen visited Kyiv on Friday to discuss energy security ahead of a third winter of war with Russia, which has kept up a constant bombing campaign on the country’s power infrastructure.
Her visit comes after a summer of intense fighting: with Moscow’s troops pressing an advance in the east and Kyiv holding on to swathes of Russia’s Kursk region.
It also comes ahead of President Volodymyr Zelensky’s expected visit to Washington in the coming days to present Kyiv proposals on how to end more than two and a half years of fighting. The Ukrainian leader is due to meet with US President Joe Biden and the two main candidates running to replace him — Vice President Kamala Harris and ex-president Donald Trump.
The International Energy Agency (IEA) has warned that this winter will be “by far” the toughest for Ukraine, with a large part of the country’s energy infrastructure already damaged by Russia’s bombing campaigns.
“My 8th visit to Kyiv comes as the heating season starts soon, and Russia keeps targeting energy infrastructure,” Von der Leyen wrote on X, formerly Twitter, after arriving to Ukraine by train from Poland.
My 8th visit to Kyiv comes as the
heating season starts soon, and Russia keeps targeting energy infrastructure.We will help Ukraine in its brave efforts.
I come here to discuss Europe’s support.
From winter preparedness to defence, to accession and progress on the G7 loans. pic.twitter.com/kxxWFA7eA0
— Ursula von der Leyen (@vonderleyen) September 20, 2024
“We will help Ukraine in its brave efforts. I come here to discuss Europe’s support. From winter preparedness to defence, to accession and progress on the G7 loans.”
She is due to meet Zelensky later for talks.
The IEA chief Fatih Birol warned a day earlier that this winter will prove the “sternest test yet” for Ukraine’s war-battered energy-grid.
The agency put forward a plan on how to safeguard Kyiv’s energy grid, with Birol saying: “We must keep the brave people of Ukraine warm.”
The previous two winters in Ukraine saw thousands regularly without power and heating in freezing temperatures as Russia systematically targeted energy infrastructure.
Grid ‘occupied, destroyed or damaged’
An IEA report said that in 2022 and 2023 about “half of Ukraine’s power generation capacity was either occupied by Russian forces, destroyed or damaged, and approximately half of the large network substations were damaged by missiles and drones.”
In Kyiv, von der Leyen laid flowers at a memorial to soldiers killed in the fighting.
“They are real heroes who made the ultimate sacrifice for the security of our continent as a whole,” she said on X.
The EU chief is also due to discuss EU accession talks for Ukraine, launched in June this year.
The first thing I do in Kyiv is to pay tribute to the fallen defenders of Ukraine over the past 10 years.
They are real heroes who made the ultimate sacrifice for the security of our continent as a whole.
We will carry their memories in our hearts and minds. pic.twitter.com/c2GaQnVZXG
— Ursula von der Leyen (@vonderleyen) September 20, 2024
Russia’s war in Ukraine has reinvigorated a push in the EU to take on new members, but there has been some frustration in Kyiv — which has had two pro-EU revolutions in the past 20 years — that talks are too slow.
Von der Leyen’s trip also comes as Ukraine has lobbied its allies to allow it to use donated weapons to strike “legitimate” military targets deep in Russian territory.
The United States and Britain have been discussing allowing it to do just that — but EU states remain divided over the issue.
On Thursday, the European Parliament adopted a resolution calling on EU countries to allow Kyiv to use Western weapons to strike military targets inside Russia.
Washington currently authorises Ukraine to only hit Russian targets in occupied parts of Ukraine and some in Russian border regions directly related to Moscow’s combat operations.
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Picture: X/@vonderleyen
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Compiled by Matthew Petersen
