Ukraine asked the US to help with gas storage to get through the winter

Oleksiy Chernyshov, Chairman of the Board of Naftogaz of Ukraine, held a meeting with Erin Elizabeth McKee, Assistant Administrator of the USAID Bureau for European and Eurasian Affairs. The parties discussed the consequences of missile attacks by the Russian Federation for the Ukrainian civil energy infrastructure and Ukraine's critical needs for the 2022-2023 heating season. The head of Naftogaz emphasized Ukraine's need to obtain additional gas.

"As a result of Russia's constant shelling of Ukrainian infrastructure, more than 300 energy facilities and about 450 kilometers of gas pipelines were damaged. In addition, Ukraine was forced to use additional volumes of coal and gas to generate electricity. These factors have led to the fact that we have an urgent need to increase the volume of our gas storages, and we call on the United States, our reliable partner, to help solve this issue," he said.

Ms. McKee assured that the Agency is working on Naftogaz's request for relevant needs.

"Naftogaz is an important partner of USAID. Our team works together with the company to ensure the basic needs of Ukrainians — electricity, heat and water. We are concentrating all our efforts to help Ukraine," McKee said.