Canada will allocate $115 million to repair Kiev’s power grid following repeated Russian attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland said Tuesday.
Speaking at a conference in Paris standing with the Ukrainian people, Freeland said the money would come from tariff revenue on imports from Russia and Belarus.
“Putin and his followers are war criminals who are trying to use the cold as a weapon to destroy the spirit of the remarkable Ukrainian people,” Freeland said.
Canada’s support “will help ensure that Ukraine can secure its energy infrastructure and survive the difficult winter ahead,” she added.
The Group of Seven said on Monday they would create a multi-agency platform to coordinate aid to Ukraine to support its repair, recovery and reconstruction.
Canada has provided $2 billion in direct financial assistance to Ukraine through 2022, and earlier this month committed an additional $500 million through Ukrainian sovereign bonds, the deputy prime minister’s office said in a release.
Canada, the United States and other Western allies have provided Ukraine with other forms of financial, intelligence and military assistance in response to the Russian incursion, while imposing multiple sanctions on Moscow.
(Reporting by Baranjot Kaur, Bengaluru; Editing by Michael Perry)