The World Bank provides 200 million dollars to repair the electricity network
The World Bank (WB) announced on Wednesday April 12 that it was going to grant 200 million dollars to Ukraine to enable the country at war to restore its electricity network, particularly targeted by Russian strikes during the winter. This new influx of money could be accompanied by another donation of $300 million from “partners and other contributors, as the project expands”the bank added in its press release.
The sum should enable Ukraine to carry out emergency work to restore the most critical infrastructures and install heating equipment when necessary.
“Ukrainian energy infrastructure suffered $11 billion in damage in 2022 and is one of the areas for which Ukraine needs the most urgent repairs”underlined the director general of operations of the World Bank, Anna Bjerde, quoted in the press release.
The Russian campaign of destruction aimed specifically at the electricity grid during the fall and winter brought down more than 50% of the country’s energy infrastructure, the institution pointed out, particularly in the east of the country, where the fighting are the most violent.
This new envelope brings to nearly 23 billion dollars the total amount of financing provided by the bank to Ukraine since the beginning of the conflict, whether in the form of loans or grants. So far 20 billion dollars have been disbursed to the country at war.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) for its part reached an agreement with the Ukrainian government on March 21, an aid plan of 15.6 billion dollars, as part of a broader plan involving in particular the G7 countries. and the European Union, for a total amount of 115 billion dollars
A meeting of Ukraine’s main supporters also took place on Wednesday in Washington at the IMF headquarters, in the presence of Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Chmyhal and with the online participation of President Volodymyr Zelensky and the country’s various partners.
The Ukrainian president took the opportunity to thank them for their help while stressing the need not to reduce support for the country at war.
“By rebuilding what has been destroyed we eliminate the enemy’s target of terror and return to normal life”he insisted, calling also to use Russian assets frozen in Western countries for the reconstruction of Ukraine.
But a study carried out on March 22 by the World Bank, the UN, the European Union and the Ukrainian government had estimated the needs in terms of recovery and reconstruction at 411 billion dollars, a sum expected to grow as the conflict continues.
