U.S. provides $53M for Ukraine energy grid as NATO presents united front

Nov. 29 (UPI) -- Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced the United States will provide $53 million to help Ukraine acquire equipment to repair and upgrade its energy grid from the sidelines of a meeting of NATO foreign ministers on Tuesday.

"In the midst of Russia's continued brutal attacks against Ukraine's energy infrastructure, Secretary of State Blinken announced today during a meeting of the G7+ on the margins of the NATO Ministerial in Bucharest that the United States government is providing over $53 million to support acquisition of critical electricity grid equipment," read a press release from the State Department on Tuesday.

The announcement came as NATO leaders gathered a show of solidarity for Ukraine against the ongoing Russian invasion, other nations pledged to help repair the country's infrastructure and provide additional military aid.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg accused Russia and its President Vladimir Putin of using winter as a weapon of war in his attack on Ukraine's infrastructure which he said were "depriving millions of basic human services."

He added that the members of the alliance would "stand by Ukraine as long as it takes."

"We realize that it is extremely important that President Putin is not able to win in Ukraine. That will be a tragedy for Ukraine, but it will also make the world more dangerous and much more vulnerable," he said.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Moscow attacks have damaged about 40% of the country's civilian infrastructure, spiraling the country into an energy crisis right at the arrival of the winter season.

"We have agreements on further cooperation in the defense and energy spheres, in the reconstruction projects of our state and in the sanctions sphere,'' Zelenskyy said after a meeting in Kyiv with the ministers from Sweden, Finland, Norway, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Iceland.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said that his country needs just as much as additional air defense systems to "break this vicious cycle" of Russia repeatedly destroying infrastructure just as Ukrainian crews repair them again.

"We are fighting against a terrorist state,'' Ukraine's Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov said. "Ukraine will prevail and will bring the war criminals to justice."