Zelensky, intervening via videoconference, estimated the urgent need for energy at 800 million
The international community responded on Tuesday to Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelensky’s request for help to help his country weather the harsh winter and better resist Russian aggression with concrete aid. The “Solidarity with the Ukrainian People” conference, jointly organized in Paris by France and the invaded country, raised 1,050 million euros “in donations and in-kind contributions,” Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna announced during a press conference .
French President Emmanuel Macron organized this international conference in Paris “to help the resistance of the Ukrainian people during this winter” in the face of the Russian offensive. After conceding several military defeats in recent weeks, Moscow’s goal is to “plunge the Ukrainian people into despair and darkness,” the French president declared in a speech at the start of the conference.
In the face of “energy terror” from Russia, which regularly bombs and destroys power plants, “generators have become as important as armored vehicles,” Zelensky explains. Speaking by video conference at the conference, the Ukrainian president estimated his country’s urgent energy aid needs at €800 million. Zelensky specified in his speech that his people need, for example, “transformers, equipment for the restoration of high-voltage networks and gas turbines”, as well as the import of electricity from the European Union to Ukraine.
The Paris conference, in which 46 countries and 24 international organizations took part, is, according to Macron, “tangible proof that Ukraine is not alone”, ten months after the start of the Russian aggression that was launched unilaterally on February 24. In addition to the partners of the European Union, representatives from Cambodia, the United States, Canada, India, Turkey and Qatar, among others, took part in the conference.
At the meeting, Macron paid tribute to the army and the Ukrainian people as a whole, which despite the “horror of the crimes committed by the Russian occupiers, in cities such as Mariupol, Bucha, Irpin, Izium and many others, continue to fight with an admirable determination for his country and for its freedom. The French president criticized Moscow’s “cynical strategy” that seeks to destroy civilian infrastructure to “bring Ukraine to its knees” and “instill terror in the civilian population.” Macron described these attacks as “war crimes” and promised that they would not go unpunished.
The French head of state believed that Ukraine, “a victim of this aggression”, is the one that “must decide on the conditions for a just and lasting peace”. Macron opined that the ten-point plan presented by Zelensky to the G7 “is an excellent foundation on which we must build together”. But he felt that “immediately the urgency is to support the people’s ability to resist.”
The conference gave the green light to the so-called ‘Paris Mechanism’, an emergency aid coordination initiative that will make it possible to better winter Ukraine and know in real time which country is providing which aid. Sources from the Élysée Palace explained that this tool is “complementary” to the G7 coordination mechanism announced by Berlin for the reconstruction of the country.
Of the €1,050 million raised at the Paris conference, €415 million will go to the energy sector, €25 million to water, €38 million to food, €17 million to health, €22 million to transport and €493 million to distributed according to need, according to the Minister of Foreign Affairs.
Macron announced that France will provide an additional €76.5 million in aid to Ukraine “in the field of electricity and energy”, in addition to the €200 million already pledged by Paris, the last €48.5 million of which is currently being paid. delivered. This money will be used, for example, for the purchase of electrical generators. The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, announced that the European Union will finance the purchase of up to 30 million LED bulbs for Ukraine, enabling this country to save “1 GW, the annual output of a nuclear power plant.” times of darkness we stand next to our Ukrainian friends,” he wrote on Twitter.
Source: La Verdad
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