December 27, 2022 Russia-Ukraine News

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken sworn again on Tuesday to “work tirelessly with the G7 and other partners to repair, replace and defend Ukraine’s energy infrastructure” as it faces a difficult winter of Russian attacks.

But this effort will not be without challenges.

A first tranche of US electrical equipment, which a US official told CNN, included large items like circuit breakers, relays, disconnectors, arrived in Ukraine more than a week ago – as part of a a multi-million dollar pledge from the Biden administration to help support Ukraine’s electricity system.

However, as the United States and its partners work to provide the capital city of Kyiv with the supplies it needs to maintain electricity and heat this winter, they have faced power-chain issues. global supply, the US official said.

There is a global effort to try to address this problem, the official explained, and the United States is working with the private sector to try to close the equipment gap, but with the supply chain issues. existing ones, there is not as much additional supply.

Other challenges: Some of the “bigger” items that are used in the United States are not compatible in Ukraine because they are designed to work on different frequency grids, the official told CNN.

The United States hopes that the supply of air defense systems will help counter the barrage of Russian attacks on Ukrainian critical infrastructure, so that equipment provided by the United States and its partners is not destroyed.

By attacking the infrastructure, the Russians made defending and recovering the network much more complicated, the official explained, because there are so many more places the system can fall than if they were attacking a power plant.

In the short term, the US is trying to locate items that the Ukrainians have prioritized, such as large gas generators. These generators would not be used to power individual homes, the US official said, but would instead be used to maintain essential utilities such as water and heat even in the event of a power outage.

The official explained that even when the power grid is repaired, it cannot immediately operate at full capacity or it may explode, so Ukrainian officials will likely have to continue making blackouts until they can. ensure that the patched power grid can sustain itself, the manager told me.