FM Kuleba says half of Ukraine’s energy system damaged

The relevant statement was made by Ukrainian Foreign Affairs Minister Dmytro Kuleba in an interview with Foreign Policy, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

According to Kuleba, the passage of the U.S. aid package was definitely a boost for morale among Ukrainian soldiers and the people of Ukraine. However, in his words, if the package immediately included a battery of Patriot missile defense systems, this boost would have been even stronger.

Kuleba explained that Ukrainians suffered the most from Russian missile attacks. Enemy ballistic missiles are “the real scourge of this war”. Lately, Russia had been using them to destroy Ukraine’s energy system.

“We hold on because we have learned a lot. We are resilient; we know what the stakes are. But just to give an understanding to your viewers, half our energy system is damaged and we still have to run the country, run the war effort, and rally the world’s support,” Kuleba concluded.

A reminder that, according to Ukrenergo National Power Company Board Chairman Volodymyr Kudrytskyi, due to the significant scale of damage caused to thermal and hydro power plants by Russian attacks, Ukraine’s energy system will be facing a capacity shortage for many months ahead.