After months of attacks on energy facilities, Ukraine is working with partners to speed up repair work.
Ukraine has enough coal and gas reserves for the remaining winter months despite Russian attacks on its energy infrastructure, Prime Minister Denis Schmihal said.
Schmihal said the situation in the energy sector remains difficult but under control after Russia’s months-long campaign of drone and missile attacks on critical infrastructure damaged an estimated 40 percent of the energy system.
“So far, all of Russia’s attempts to plunge Ukraine into darkness have failed,” Schmihal told a government meeting on Monday.
“We have enough reserves to continue and complete the heating season in normal mode. About 11 billion cubic meters of gas are stored in gas storages and nearly 1.2 million tons of coal are in storages.
Schmihal added that the government had approved a decision to allow state oil and gas company Naftogaz to receive a 189 million euro ($205 million) grant from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.
Despite a warmer-than-usual December and January, regions of Ukraine are experiencing power outages due to energy shortages.
But Schmihal said the country continued to work with partners to speed up repair work, restore distribution facilities and implement new energy efficiency programs.
Russia launched an air campaign of missile and drone attacks targeting Ukraine’s power infrastructure to increase pressure on Kyiv over the winter after Ukrainian forces scored a string of battlefield victories.
Ukraine condemned the airstrikes as “war crimes”. Russia has consistently denied attacking civilian targets.
At a meeting of Ukraine’s allies last week, pledges were made to send air defense systems and other weapons to bolster Kyiv’s ability to repel Russian attacks.
But Ukraine continues to ask Western countries to increase supplies of weapons, including battle tanks, which it is seeking for a potential new offensive against Russian forces in the coming months.
Kyiv has been pleading for months for Western tanks, which it says should give its forces the firepower and mobility to break through Russian defense lines and retake occupied territory.
As Russia’s months-long air campaign continues, Ukrainian and Western military officials have said Moscow is facing a weapons shortage after firing thousands of artillery shells and missiles at Ukraine since it invaded Ukraine 11 months ago.
Speaking on Monday, former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said Russia’s weapons stockpile was sufficient to continue fighting in Ukraine.
“Our opponents are watching, periodically making statements that we don’t have this or that… I want to disappoint them. We have enough of everything,” Medvedev said during a visit to a Kalashnikov factory in Izhevsk, about 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) east of Moscow.
In a video posted on his Telegram channel, Medvedev is seen inspecting assault rifles, artillery shells, missiles and drones.
Medvedev told officials during the visit that drones were in extremely high demand for his “special military operation.”
Drones used by warring parties are said to be precise, cheap and safer to operate than manned aircraft.
Medvedev, now vice president of the Security Council, became head of a new military-industrial commission last December to oversee the production of weapons to support the war.
He is one of the most hawkish pro-war voices in Russia.
Last week he said defeat in Ukraine could trigger nuclear war.