Belgium releases 9 million to restore Ukrainian energy infrastructure

Belgium is allocating 9 million euros to help restore energy infrastructure in Ukraine, which is often the target of Russian attacks. Minister of Development Cooperation Caroline Gennez (Vooruit) announced this on Friday. The money will go to the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), a UN organization specialized in economic development.

Russia regularly carries out attacks on power plants and other energy infrastructure in Ukraine. An attack in March destroyed 10 major power plants in a single day, and since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine more than two years ago, half of all Ukrainian energy infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, a Gennez press release said. “Hundreds of thousands of people depend on these plants to keep warm, cook and wash.”

“It remains important that we send not only weapons, but also humanitarian aid for the population and support for reconstruction,” Gennez said. The Belgian money will go to the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), a UN organization specialized in economic development. It will use it to restore energy infrastructure around Kharkiv, a city in eastern Ukraine, close to the front. The UNDP program focuses on more distributed energy sources, such as solar panels, so that the destruction of one installation does not immediately leave hundreds of thousands of people without power.