The German Foreign Ministry, strongly condemning the destruction of the Kakhovskaya HPP, announced the immediate delivery of generators, water filters, water treatment facilities, and equipment for the organization of temporary shelters to the affected regions.
“The destruction of the Kakhovka Dam in Ukraine is a violation of international humanitarian law and results in suffering and hardship for the civilian population as well as catastrophic consequences for the environment. We strongly condemn this malicious act,” the German Foreign Office said on Twitter.
“To help, we have already purchased 56 generators and 5,000 water filters, as well as items for shelter, which will be sent to Ukraine immediately,” the post specifies.
In addition, water purification equipment capable of providing drinking water to 60,000 people and dump trucks for garbage removal are being prepared for transportation. “Our partner organizations working in the region are assisting in the evacuation and distributing food kits to those in need.”
As noted, since the beginning of the war, the FRG has allocated more than 16.8 billion euros to support Ukraine. “This assistance includes humanitarian aid, internships, disaster response, stabilization projects and assistance in war crimes investigations, as well as humanitarian demining operations.”
The German government will transfer more than 700 generators to Ukraine to alleviate the energy crisis in the country, 41 of which will be given to food producers, in particular to support the production of bread, milk, livestock products and provide electricity to food storage warehouses.
According to a press release from the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), which is involved in the distribution and delivery of generators in Ukraine, seven bakeries across the country have already received German generators rated 450-550 kW. This will be a timely and tangible support to restore critical food value chains and provide people with life-saving food.
The press release specifies that the day before LLC “Odessa bread-baking plant № 4” (Odessa) received one of the German generators, provided by the German Federal Agency for Technical Relief (THW) with the financial support of the German Foreign Office. Distribution of generators was made by FAO and Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine.
The company is located in Odessa, where the Russian military aggression at the beginning of 2023 created the most difficult situation with power supply in Ukraine. The enterprise faces constant problems in providing basic activities, as both scheduled and unscheduled power outages disrupt the technological process of baking bread, which also leads to significant financial losses.
“The company is completely dependent on an uninterrupted supply of electricity. We are pleased that thanks to the transfer of this generator we can support Ukrainians and ensure sustainable production of essential products – bread,” the FAO quoted Frank Müller, agricultural attaché of the German Embassy in Ukraine.
According to FAO, Odessa bakery is the largest producer of bakery products in the south of Ukraine and provides bread to more than 58% of the population of the Odessa region. The company employs 910 employees, producing over 100 tons of products daily. The plant’s products are sold in the Odessa, Mykolaiv and Kherson regions, as well as in Kherson, where no other bakery is operating.
“We sincerely thank the FAO and the Ministry of Agrarian Policy for their assistance in providing our enterprise with a generator from the German government. This help is critically needed for our production. Now in Odessa the electricity is provided for two hours a day, so without this generator we would not be able to fulfill our tasks of bread production, to supply sufficient quantity of products to budget organizations of the city and region: schools, kindergartens, hospitals and sanatoriums”, – the FAO quotes the director of the plant Vitaliy Dobrovolskiy.
As it was reported, Germany on January 10 delivered the first 10 high-efficiency electric generators (capacity from 450 kW) to the warehouse in Ukraine, from where they are distributed among the food producers working in the regions suffered from the Russian invasion and also in the recently de-occupied territories.
In total, the German agency planned to transfer more than 700 generators to support the Ukrainian energy system. Of these, in January it planned to supply at least 25 generators to producers of foodstuffs such as bread, milk, livestock products, electricity for food storage facilities, etc.
Ukraine’s largest mobile operator Kyivstar together with its partners has installed generators in 50 branded stores, in the coming months the number of standalone stores will reach 100, the operator’s press service said.
“To date, the company has already invested more than 350 million UAH to provide the network of base stations with powerful batteries, as well as stationary and mobile diesel generators. More than UAH 5.5 million were allocated to compensate our partners for purchasing generators in stores to provide our customers with constant access to services”, – the press service quotes Kyivstar head of retail sales channels Mykhailo Mykolyuk as saying.
As reported, earlier Kyivstar invested more than UAH 50 million in the purchase of uninterruptible power supplies to support “Home Internet” service to 10 thousand homes and 90 thousand subscribers to stay connected even during power outages.
The shareholder of Kyivstar is an international group VEON, which is headquartered in the Netherlands. The group’s shares are traded on the NASDAQ (New York) and Euronext (Amsterdam) stock exchanges.
Kyivstar, Ukraine’s largest mobile operator, has brought the total capacity of generators in its network to 37 MW, of which 20 MW are large stationary generators to back up key technology sites, company president Alexander Komarov said.
“These grid facilities are fully backed up and have enough fuel to cope with the consequences of the blackout. Only yesterday there were 14 outages of technological sites in 8 regions of Ukraine”, – he noted.
Komarov added that in January-February the company plans to increase the number of stationary and mobile diesel generators at other network sites by another 40% to 14 MW.
“As of today, we have 700 stationary and mobile diesel generators with a total capacity of about 10 MW. In January-February, we will increase their number and, accordingly, the capacity by another 40% – up to 14 MW,” – wrote the president of Kyivstar.
According to him, despite of all efforts, the available capacities are not enough. Komarov appealed for cooperation to representatives of businesses that have generators with a capacity of 6 kW and can connect telecom equipment within the campaign “Business unites for victory” to make it work during periods of power outage.
“To date, we have about 400 connections to third-party generators whose (combined) capacity is about 3 MW. And also in the processing of more than 600 more applications, we are analyzing the technical possibility of connection,” – said the president of Kyivstar.
In December the director of the Department of Fixed Internet Development of the Ministry of Communications Yuri Matsik reported that only 7% of 32 thousand mobile stations are equipped with generators and 93% with accumulators. According to him, generators with a capacity of 20-30 kW are needed for the communication center, where there is traffic switching. For the base station it is 6-8 kW.
Within the framework of joint Ukrainian-French initiative “Light during winter”, 23 communities in nine regions will receive two 5 kW generators each, the National Interest Defense Network (ANTS) reported in the press release on Friday.
To accomplish this task in late November, ANTS activists, together with the French NGO Stand with Ukraine, approached the Association of French Municipalities with a request to help purchase generators for Ukrainian communities.
The first generators were delivered to Ukraine on December 19. At that time, eight communities received generators with a capacity of 9 kW.
Today 46 more generators were brought to Ukraine from French communities. They were received by: Khotynska, Sadivska, Lebedynska, Krasnopolska, Baranivska, Volynska, Berezhanska, Tulchynska, Chortkivska, Trostyanetska, Nedryhaylivska, Pokrovska, Podgorodne, Dubovyka, Apostolivska, Novhorod-Severska, Novobasanska, Poromivska, Gorodnytska, Akhtyrska, Zolochivska, Drohobychska and Kremenchug communities.
Also in the near future, ANTC will deliver another 400 generators to other communities that it works with within the Community Restoration Project, which includes 30 communities in 10 regions of Ukraine. All of them were either under occupation or suffered from enemy attacks.
This “Strengthening Communities for Victory and Ukraine’s Recovery” project is supported by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).
The Georgian embassy delivered high-capacity generators to Kharkiv on January 5, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said.
“We thank Georgia for providing Kharkiv with high-capacity generators, which were delivered by the Georgian embassy on January 5. We appreciate every assistance in restoring critical infrastructure facilities damaged after air, missile and artillery strikes,” the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Twitter.
