“Access to energy is crucial to maintaining Ukraine’s society, economy and businesses. Sweden’s support to Ukraine is strong and long-term. Russia is increasingly attacking Ukraine’s energy system with the aim of disabling crucial social infrastructure. We are now increasing our support in the area of energy to strengthen Ukraine’s resilience,” says Minister for International Development Cooperation and Trade Johan Forssell.

Sweden provides Ukraine with political, military and humanitarian support and support to reconstruction, businesses and development. Ukraine is now the largest bilateral recipient of Swedish development assistance. Sweden’s new support to energy infrastructure is funded through the development assistance budget and will be managed by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency on behalf of the Government. The new support consists of two parts:

• SEK 500 million through the Energy Community’s Ukraine Energy Support Fund;
• SEK 150 million through the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

The Ukraine Energy Support Fund compiles support from governments, international organisations and finance institutions to support the most urgent needs related to Ukraine’s energy supply, such as purchasing technical equipment. The fund is led by the Energy Community, an international organisation.

Support through UNDP will fund urgently needed reconstruction of energy infrastructure in Ukraine. The need for technical equipment and other resources for energy production, such as generators, transformers, installations and personnel training, is immense. Kharkiv will be prioritised because of its acute needs, but other parts of Ukraine, such as Odesa, Kyiv and Mykolaiv, will also be eligible for support.